December 14 – “But the knee”

Ah, the things one does for a beautiful granddaughter.  You can’t expect me to let her continue crying, can you?  It’s in my nature to do everything possible to make her happy, even when Mommy is leaving for school (by the way, Mommy did well on her final, and now has only one semester to go.  Way to go, Mommy).  As April began her walk to the car and Cailyn began her wailing, I grabbed her from behind (Cailyn, not April) and tossed her into the air.  She giggled briefly as I caught her on the way down, so I repeated the process, trying to fill in any dead space with talking or laughter of my own.  I twirled around and around.  I bounced and dipped.  We followed April outside to give her one last hug, and the bouncing and twirling continued.  And then … and then … well, I’m not exactly sure what happened then.  All I know is, I lost my balance and was plummeting toward the earth with Cailyn in my arms.  Determined to protect her at all costs, I twisted just a bit to my right, aiming as best as I could for the thick grass that blankets our front yard.  It took some doing, but when we hit, we hit the soft sod instead of the concrete.  That was particularly helpful from my perspective.  See, I had her cradled in my arms, so there were only three points of contact with the ground.  My right elbow, my right knee, and my face.  The face I wasn’t worried about.  Couldn’t look much worse than it already does.  The elbow site resulted in a pretty sore shoulder, if that makes any sense.  But the knee.  Ouch.  I think it may have hit the sidewalk or something.  It swelled up and is still incredibly painful.  Of course I couldn’t let on that I was hurting.  Cailyn was still sniffling, though she did seem to get a thrill out of the fall itself.  We lay on the grass for a few micro-seconds and looked at each other, me reveling in the fact that we were still alive, she wondering where this strange new carnival ride had appeared from.  Then I hopped up to prove we were both fine.  Of course that’s when I realized my knee hurt, so I lost my balance again.  This time, though I managed to crash against my parked truck so I could stay upright.  Yeah, I know.  I should have stayed down for the count.  But we were all good.  Sort of.  Cailyn felt good enough to tune back up for a minute or two, just long enough for her Mom to drive away.  The typical kid’s ploy to make Mom feel terrible for abandoning her.  As soon as her Mom was out of sight, she was fine and we made our way back into the house.  Now to crip my way through the rest of the Christmas season.  Too much to do to be injured right now.

Psalms 47:2 says, “How awesome is the Lord Most High, the great King over all the earth!”

Father, please help me with some knee healing today.  Amen.