A Tree Fell on Me and I Walked Away

I hesitated to write this post because I know that the owner's of said tree feel SO bad about it and I really don't want them to. BUT the subject is just so random and odd and filled with luck that I couldn't resist. Forgive me.

You see, a tree fell on me last Sunday. It had been cut off to about 5 or 6 feet high and a very inviting hammock was attached to it. I joined my husband and infant on the hammock and BOOM, first the hammock collapsed. Thud! Bodies hit the ground, and a split second later a horrible, guttural yell came out of my mouth. I couldn't see anything but black. I couldn't talk, I could only gesture with my right hand. All I felt was immense weight and pain on my upper right leg and the thought running through my head was, "get this off of me as fast as you can" (unbearable).

A friend suggested I write about this on the blog because of the so many "what ifs" that didn't occur. She said, "Praise God" a couple of times when we talked about the details. And it got me thinking about the luck (or divine intervention) that took place that day. The tree landed on the top of my thigh, the thickest part of my very thin body. The trunk was about as wide as the length of my entire thigh. I am a very long legged gal and the trunk was probably about a foot and a half or so wide; it took up most of my upper leg. Had the tree landed two inches in either direction, it would've crushed my right knee or to the north, my hip. The force and weight of it was remarkable.

I mentioned the weight of the trunk. Other people that were there did too, saying that it was so heavy that couldn't lift it. My husband is the one that freed me and he must've had a rush of adrenaline. Luckily it was over quickly.
The Hubs said he rolled our baby off in the opposite direction, jumped up and pulled the weight off. He doesn't remember how heavy it was.

The What-Ifs:
I wrote them all down and just erased them.
Don't want to think of them anymore. They are too gruesome.

I just want to be thankful that it happened to me. Thankful to God, thankful to luck, thankful to nature and gravity. Thankful it was not anyone else I cared about in my place. Each day since I became an unwitting logger, I watch it grow. The purple and yellow badge that seeps it's way south across my skin reminds me daily how thankful I am. How it the outcome could have been so very different.

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