Everyone wants to know how it happened. With not a shadow of a lie, I tell them.
Think Roger Federer. Australian Open. Tennis ball. Fractured foot. They were all involved. Just not the way you might imagine.
Roger was warming up. It was the Australian Open. He was on the television screen at the time. I stepped out into my back garden… onto a tennis ball and fractured my foot. Not exactly a sporting injury but it has certainly put paid to my exercise regime…and driving…and jogging… and five rhythms dancing.. and for a while the ability to carry anything when on two crutches doing an astronaut impression in a moonboot.

I’ve kept telling myself lots of people have so much worse, and I mean it but the biggest lessons for me in my enforced character building moment are these:
1) We take things (in this case my mobility and my independence) for granted. Until they’re not there.
2) Showing faith and confidence in others can be a growth experience for all (my kids cook more  and better than before).
3) Challenges make us inventive. You wouldn’t believe what I’ve done not to starve when no-one was around at home to feed me!
4) With all the terror and tragedy in the world, only ever a mouse click away from our consciousness, there are so many good, considerate and empathic people out there quite happy to perform random acts of kindness such as when you stand up and knock your crutch away out of reach during a facilitation. We need to soak up that goodness in a scary world so as not to slip into despair.

All of this has reinforced things I knew before but about which we all need reminders. An attitude of gratitude makes us happier. Empathy is essential to relationships. Empowering others usually allows people to step up. Being vulnerable even as strong confident people is not a sign of weakness. Ask for what you need and don’t expect busy people to be mind readers. And we are far more change resilient than we often give ourselves credit for.

I’ve got to be honest. I’m so impressed with myself and my capacity for self- awareness and growth through adversity. But if they tell me next week I’m not as young as Dane Swan and not to donate my crutches and moonboot to charity yet, I may even cry. Then I’ll pick myself up, re-apply my eye liner, call myself a taxi, head off for a consult with a wonderful client and remind myself that my work and my world rocks!