A fall in fall

Have you ever fallen in fall?
I'm not talking about 'in love.'
I mean literally fallen?
I tripped UP the steps at my school on Wednesday.
And I have bruises to prove it.
(You are welcome that I didn't include pictures!)

I should never have attempted to carry such
a full bowl of soup up to my lunch group of 5th graders.
That's where I believe I went wrong.
I remember thinking, "I can NOT spill this."
Imagine my surprise three seconds later when
I lay sprawled out on our school stairs splattered in soup.

I have bruises on both calves and my left thigh,
not to mention the enormous bruise to my ego
when a little voice behind me said,
"Mrs. Slocum! Are you okay? What do you need?"
I told him I needed a lot of paper towels and
my little angel ran off to assist me in my time of need.

I wanted to flee write along with him but I had to
stand guard as one hundred twenty 4th graders paraded
past thinking that the broccoli cheddar soup
I'd spilled was something else entirely.

As my favorite holiday approaches,
I've been surrounded by gratitude through this experience.
I could have broken a bone.
 I could have hit my head.
I could have been out of work for who knows how long?
Yet,
I stood there,
shin throbbing,
quad pounding,
wrist aching,
shooing kids around the soup.
I stood on two functional legs and now
I can laugh about it. 
Or maybe that's the Advil kicking in?

Fall is my FAVORITE season.
And even though I've had a fall in fall,
I still embrace this time of beauty and growth
as we cycle through another year.

Let me hear your fall story - 
maybe it'll become a scene in my next book!