“Biking on Ice” Creative Commons by HectorHannibal

Right around this time last year, I ruptured a disc in my neck and it kept me sidelined for over 5 months while we worked on different non-surgical solutions.  I was bummed out, but eventually things got back to normal…mostly (I still have numbness in two of my fingers).  Then I went the rest of the year injury free.  I almost started taking my healthy state for granted when earlier this week I woke up with some pretty severe neck and back pains.  My thoughts immediately flashed back to last year’s ruptured disc incident. “Oh crap! Not again!” was actually more what was going through my mind.  Luckily for me, I only tweaked a rib out of place and between a quick visit to my chiropractor and another to my massage therapist, I was back on the bike in no time at all.

While I was riding this morning, I got to thinking about what happened this week and just how fragile everything in life is.  Our health, our jobs, our homes.  Nothing is rock solid.  In fact, most of the time, we’re walking or riding through life on pretty thin ice.  It can break at any time.  Unfortunately, most of the time we go through our lives not giving much thought to just how thin that ice might be.  And when it breaks, it can have a devastating effect on us.  But we usually recover from our ice breaking incidents.  And, when things get better we start to forget about that thin ice and start taking our health, our loved ones, and our lives for granted again. I think that what I experienced this week has put things into a little perspective for me and made me commit to myself that I won’t let another moment in my life pass by in which I take any of the blessings in my life for granted.  I’ll be much more aware and appreciative of every moment of good health that I have, every moment I can smile and play with my kids.  So, maybe falling through the ice once in a while is a good thing if it reminds us every now and then just how thin it really is.

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