BAFFLING WARNING AT THE GYM!

Journal Entry
Sunday 08/15/2004
Around 5:00 p.m.


While exercising at the nearby gym, I had been standing next to one of the weight machines. Even so, I was unaware just how close to the heavy bars I came. Looking down all the while, I had no idea what was about to befall me; or would have if I had not responded to an adamant voice, a telepathic echo roaring the words, “Move now!”

Reflexively, I hopped. In an instant, a load came crashing to the floor! The weight, on its way down, just about grazed the top of my down-turned head. Sheer luck does not even come close to describing my fortune. If my crown had taken a direct hit, I would have suffered a concussion, no doubt. Otherwise, I might have been killed.

In a daze, I rolled onto a mat and whispered, “Thank you, whoever you are.” Choking back the tears, I cried in silence, I am so grateful! Then I sprawled out on the mat and towel-dried my face. Some people came running over.

“What happened?” a broad-shouldered man asked me. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I said, working up a would-be smile. “Just a little stunned. Hey, thanks for checkin’ in on me.” The nice man nodded and they all smiled. I winked at the bunch and they skipped back to their exercises. At that point, I moved to the corner of the room, planning to take five and complete my workouts. But just as I stooped, I glanced down to find my hands and legs shaking like streamers on a gift box; an apt reaction to utter disbelief.

Well, time to go. So I scraped up my gym bag and made my wobbly way to the car. Awestruck by the baffling warning that had saved me from a disastrous fate, I fumbled around with the keys and eventually flung my junk into the trunk. In due time, I managed to get into the car, turn on the ignition and back out of the parking space. Driving home like a turtle, I poked my head up toward the windshield. And, as if someone up there could hear my every word, I whooped and hollered again and again, “Thank you for being there, whoever you are. My God, thank you!”