Hmmm. perhaps it serves me right for blogging about presence but my own lack of focus in the moment hit me on the head last night, literally.
Somehow on my way home I stumbled on the pavement. In falling, my head collided with a cast iron bollard. This came as a bit of a shock. I was aided by several passers by. As a measure of how cosmopolitan my home city has become, these consisted of a British Asian, a young French couple and a middle-aged American woman. I was offered, with great kindness, several different bits of advice and offers to call ambulances. I was sufficiently ok to appreciate the diversity of suggestions and decide, after a minute or two, that I was probably going to live. The Asian man was able to assure me that my pupils were doing something that it was good they did. The American gave me additional information by showing me my rapidly swelling forehead in a vanity mirror. And the French couple were… well reassuringly French and kind.
I wandered home and applied ice for about an hour. Gradually, a variety of other lesser injuries made themselves known and I took myself gingerly to bed. This morning I am in reasonable shape, but it does look as though I have been the victim of incompetent botox treatment to my forehead. Frowning is uncomfortable, and I feel a tad depressed about this fleeting encounter with a sense of mortality.
I suppose its a good reminder to try and stay in the here and now…
