There’s a line from an old commercial most of us remember:
“Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”
I never imagined I would one day hear those words echo inside my own head.
Mine happened in the bathroom.
No one else was home.
I left my walker at the door and used the counter to steady myself as I stepped inside. Just as I reached the toilet, my legs lost their strength.
I crumbled.
One moment I was standing. The next I was on the cold tile. I was staring at the ceiling, trying to understand what had happened.
Am I hurt?
No.
Phone?
Not in my pocket. Charging in the living room.
Then the voice came back to me:
“Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”
Except this time, it wasn’t a punchline.
It was strategy.
I slide on my back?
I ignored the pain. I pulled myself across the tile and out of the bathroom. I continued down the hallway, inch by inch, until I reached my phone.
And then I waited.
On that floor, I understood what my body was trying to teach me:
If I fall, I am not getting up alone.
Not anymore.
My body now requires strategy.
And whether I welcome it or not – I am learning to live strategically.
The Long Record 
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