I read and listen to a story like this and realize a better way to tell of some of my stories. This one, and the comments make me realize how many times I have been fortunate, grossly, just plain lucky
to have avoided premature death. Thank you for sharing I will try to remember to share with you Sherman so we could laugh little at the guy with the scythe. Not yet dude.
I almost drowned at Pt Defiance (puget sound) when I was about 7.
During my last pregnancy, I missed a shoot out at 3rd & Crime (Pine), Seattle by less than 5 minutes. I walked right through, watched it from the penthouse of my dj gig and my minivan was taped off as part of the crimescene hours later.
I had to have my stomach pumped after eating a box of slugbait when I was very young.
I love what you said about good luck and bad luck. When I was a kid I read and reread a story in an Alfred Hitchcock collection about luck—good, bad and sloppy—sloppy being the mix of good and bad—good, it wouldn’t have happened. Bad if it did. Sloppy, you weren’t hit by that bus, but it ran through a mud puddle as you jumped out of the way and got soaked.
The poem at the end of your story is wonderful. Happy you weren’t hurt.
19, the summer I took much LSD. I was walking down the street and I stepped off the sidewalk for three steps to let people pass. A half second after I stepped back onto the sidewalk, a massive city bus roared past, so close all my long hair flew into the air in the vortex it created. It would be another year before I got sober, after another even darker summer, but I got there.
This post is stunning. Your poem tugs my soul to a nostalgic place that hasn’t yet occurred. How’d you do that?!
I’ve almost died more times that a cat would be permitted. But here I am very much alive and reading poetry on a rainy spring morning. Life is good. Thank you 🙏
Close call! Scary. My close call came chopping firewood with a friend in the hills of Mendocino Co. The chainsaw stuck in a knot on a log, my friend asked me to unlodge it w. a kick. I stupidly did so, lost my footing, and fell onto the saw. I blanked out. Next memory—I woke up in Willits Memorial two days later. The gash came so close to my artery I almost lost my thumb, but the town's good doctor (of only 2) was there and saved my thumb and my life.
The closest I came to death was not my own but my father's. At 92, he was in an induced coma after collapsing at Walmart, of all places. We kids came from around the country to be at his hospital bedside. Over a few days, we took turns reading and talking to him. Finally, I told my brother that our father was waiting to hear that our mother would be all right after he died and that he would make sure since he lived only one street away. My brother did just that, and within minutes my father left this world in peace.
July 4, 2022, walked into the hospital emergency room with chest pains. Doctors discovered 99.9% blockage of the Widow-Maker. They said they didn't know how I walked in like that.
Incredible near miss story. Some of our past does seem unreal and there are times I wonder if I've invented parts of that past. But I realize that they are indeed my stories to express and no one can take them away.
I have had several near misses involving vehicles and distracted drivers. I am grateful for these because they sharpen my awareness on the road. I can only hope my sharpness continues to keep me out of harms way.
I almost died in childbirth. I had complete placenta previa and was close to bleeding out. The nurses looked at my hubby as though he could be a widower and given how early our twins were he could have lost his babies too. I needed 3 transfusions. The kids were in the NICU for 2.5 months but today they are amazing 27 year olds.
Southeast Asia 1970.
Well…..I am old, so….
I read and listen to a story like this and realize a better way to tell of some of my stories. This one, and the comments make me realize how many times I have been fortunate, grossly, just plain lucky
to have avoided premature death. Thank you for sharing I will try to remember to share with you Sherman so we could laugh little at the guy with the scythe. Not yet dude.
I almost drowned at Pt Defiance (puget sound) when I was about 7.
During my last pregnancy, I missed a shoot out at 3rd & Crime (Pine), Seattle by less than 5 minutes. I walked right through, watched it from the penthouse of my dj gig and my minivan was taped off as part of the crimescene hours later.
I had to have my stomach pumped after eating a box of slugbait when I was very young.
How am I even alive, lol.
We just had an entire teaching on this particular technique, imagining outcomes, and here it is in action. So good, Sherman. Great share.
I love what you said about good luck and bad luck. When I was a kid I read and reread a story in an Alfred Hitchcock collection about luck—good, bad and sloppy—sloppy being the mix of good and bad—good, it wouldn’t have happened. Bad if it did. Sloppy, you weren’t hit by that bus, but it ran through a mud puddle as you jumped out of the way and got soaked.
The poem at the end of your story is wonderful. Happy you weren’t hurt.
19, the summer I took much LSD. I was walking down the street and I stepped off the sidewalk for three steps to let people pass. A half second after I stepped back onto the sidewalk, a massive city bus roared past, so close all my long hair flew into the air in the vortex it created. It would be another year before I got sober, after another even darker summer, but I got there.
I’m happy you made it through that dark forest. Keep it up! From an old lady, sober now for 17 years
This post is stunning. Your poem tugs my soul to a nostalgic place that hasn’t yet occurred. How’d you do that?!
I’ve almost died more times that a cat would be permitted. But here I am very much alive and reading poetry on a rainy spring morning. Life is good. Thank you 🙏
Close call! Scary. My close call came chopping firewood with a friend in the hills of Mendocino Co. The chainsaw stuck in a knot on a log, my friend asked me to unlodge it w. a kick. I stupidly did so, lost my footing, and fell onto the saw. I blanked out. Next memory—I woke up in Willits Memorial two days later. The gash came so close to my artery I almost lost my thumb, but the town's good doctor (of only 2) was there and saved my thumb and my life.
The closest I came to death was not my own but my father's. At 92, he was in an induced coma after collapsing at Walmart, of all places. We kids came from around the country to be at his hospital bedside. Over a few days, we took turns reading and talking to him. Finally, I told my brother that our father was waiting to hear that our mother would be all right after he died and that he would make sure since he lived only one street away. My brother did just that, and within minutes my father left this world in peace.
Wow. Gosh.
I was almost raped and murdered by another man when I was 22. I’m 71 now but I can still see his face and those dead, dark eyes.
In childbirth.
July 4, 2022, walked into the hospital emergency room with chest pains. Doctors discovered 99.9% blockage of the Widow-Maker. They said they didn't know how I walked in like that.
Incredible near miss story. Some of our past does seem unreal and there are times I wonder if I've invented parts of that past. But I realize that they are indeed my stories to express and no one can take them away.
I have had several near misses involving vehicles and distracted drivers. I am grateful for these because they sharpen my awareness on the road. I can only hope my sharpness continues to keep me out of harms way.
Close call. Glad you’re able to write about it.
I almost died in childbirth. I had complete placenta previa and was close to bleeding out. The nurses looked at my hubby as though he could be a widower and given how early our twins were he could have lost his babies too. I needed 3 transfusions. The kids were in the NICU for 2.5 months but today they are amazing 27 year olds.