Thank God

Tonight I had a quite frightening moment, and I'm still thanking God that I'm okay.

I was coming up the stairs out of the metro when I saw a man and woman walking towards me - or rather, the woman dragging the stumbling man towards me. The man was so drunk (and/or under the influence of something else) that he could barely walk, and he seemed to be resisting the woman, who also might have been under the influence herself. They nearly knocked me over as I was coming up the last 2 steps, but I saw them just in time and quickly moved out of the way.

I thought, "They're going to fall."

Sure enough, two seconds later, they went tumbling down the stairs.

Not just an "oops I tripped" kind of fall.

It was the kind of fall where they went bouncing down 15 cement steps, rolling over each other, banging their heads, shoulders, and backs on each step along the way.

Immediately when they reached the bottom a crowd of people jumped around them to see if they were okay, while one girl ran to get the police standing just across the way.

I just stood there and stared.

After standing back for a bit taking it all in, watching the crowd gather and the police make calls on their walkie talkies, I sat on a bench and said a prayer for them.

Then I realized: that could of been me, too.

They nearly pushed me anyway.

Only because I was looking up at the right moment instead of looking at the steps did I see them and move out of the way. They certainly hadn't been paying any attention to me.

What if I hadn't been looking up? What if I had exited the metro just 2 seconds later? What if something had distracted me and I didn't see them coming straight at me?

I praise the Lord that I'm okay - that they didn't run into me and take me with them. That I didn't walk out 2 seconds later.

As it turns out, it seems the man was relatively okay. His head was bleeding quite a bit but he was able to stand...sort of. So at least he didn't break his neck. But I never saw what happened to the woman. She never came back up the stairs, and when the ambulance came the police just waved it on by, so my only guess is that she too, was able to walk/stagger away from the fall. I really am amazed that neither of them broke their spine.

As Mad-Eye Moody would say, "Constant vigilance!!"

But no matter how much you pay attention, things happen. Surprises come. There are things that are out of our control. But today, I'm praising God for another day of my life; for another day without injury; for the saved lives of the drunk couple.