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I remember the shock of it. The yellow-white shock of laying on the floor wondering if my knee was broken. Pain is red and blue in my mind. Bright red, and royal blue. I couldn’t move my knee…. All I could do was lay there yelling “Oh my God!” For a few minutes I really did think that it might be broken. But then I thought that it didn’t hurt enough to be broken. It was strange… the thoughts that went through my head right then. I remember being so suddenly amazed that I wasn’t crying. I remember looking up at myself in the mirror and being so shocked that my eyes weren’t red… that they weren’t wet… I was physically calm… but I was mentally shocked. One of the assistants began to touch my leg… I’m assuming checking for breaks. Finally, Sihing helped me to my feet and together we hobbled over to the mats and I layed down.. and put my foot up on two red bags. Rain brought me one of those ice packs that you have to crumble and crack before they get cold. I didn’t start crying until the rest of the class went back to training. And even then I only cried a little. Mostly I just let my knee get numb… and then I watched them train… I listened to Sihing. My knee started to feel better. I was able to bend it, move it, flex it… at least a little. The pain receded just as the cold pack started to feel warm. I began to wish that I was back out there on the floor with them. Finally everyone lined back up and I knew class was almost over. Sihing took them through a set of sit ups… and I watched through the first set and then decided that I could do them too. So I scooted my little injured ass to the back of the room and finished the day despite my inability to walk. *pride*

It is so strange how life occasionally enriches itself with parallels, symbolism, irony… things that I’d only expect to find in literature, I find all the time in my own life. I have a funny feeling that the Great Authors of the world didn’t just invent the things which now make their novels great. They saw it in their own lives, recognized fleeing glimpses of some kind of Design… and then wrote what they saw.

I experienced Life’s sense of Timing today. I had almost given up the hope of receiving my yellow belt before December. And today, I only thought about the belt once… when I spoke to Mark for the first time since the test. He didn’t even know if he had passed. Well, today, of all days… and during a day class at that… when there was only eight students present, Sifu held the promotion ceremony for the two of us. I was so mixed up inside… But it was so strangely appropriate. Three and a half long weeks of anticipation and constant disappointment… and Sifu promotes us when I am least expecting it… during a Day class which I attend because of the informality and relaxed atmosphere… and it was there, there that I experienced the most formal part of studying Wun Hop Kuen Do: receiving a promotion.

So my injurious day turned out to be very good. I came home with the two most telling signs that I’m a martial artist: a colored belt, and a physically inhibiting injury. :) And I’m strangely equally proud of both.