Have you ever....

Lost control for just a second. Hit an immovable obstacle. Then fallen to the ground?

After hitting the ground, did you shake the impact out of your head and wait for a moment as things came back into focus? Did you have a new perspective on things, from a different vantage point? A view of the world that you don't usually take. One where you are close to the earth, where you can smell the dirt and the rot. You can see the busy activity of small insects. Did you notice how the fallen leaf litter blankets the earth, protects it, and regenerates what was lost in the spring and summer rains? Did you notice that the colors of the forest are different from down here? The yellows brighter, the browns more earthy, the dusty yellow filtered fall light warmer and more regenerative than it is from five feet higher where you normally see this view?

While you were down there, did you find something that you weren't looking for? Something that made you think about perspective and how it can change everything depending on which side of it you reside? Did you ever think about luck? Did you consider that nearly any situation where luck is involved has an element of good luck for one party, and bad luck for another? Truely, the rabbit's foot is lucky for the hunter - but the fact that the hunter now possesses the rabbit's foot is unlucky for the rabbit. Did you consider this as a constant through life?

As you pick yourself up, and dust yourself off - maybe look around and think about the give and take; the ebb and flo; the birth and death that is constantly surging forward and pulling back all around us. Think about how as you gain, others lose; then when you lose others will gain. As you climb back on your bike, think about how small these things are in the scheme of things, but how they also might have an unintended, or unexpected impact.

The rabbit would never have comprehended that he might have had an impact on your life. Maybe his bad luck was your fortune this time as you ride away with another perspective that you would never have gained if it weren't for his loss.

To all those who lost someone this week (there were many around me)... I'm sorry for your time of pain and sorrow. Please know that you are all in my thoughts and prayers. Maybe with some luck a little meaning will come from what probably seems like senseless loss. I hope so.