On this day, a year ago, I was just excited that my evening would include being a wedding GUEST at a dear friend’s wedding. For months, I had talked non-stop about how fun it would be to dress up, have my handsome date escort me and most importantly, DANCE the night away. I love to dance. Always have. In fact, if you are a past bride, you know this to be true because most likely I boogied with you (camera in hand) on your wedding day.
Well, it was a beautiful wedding and the reception had begun…the time had come to kick off my shoes and shake my tail feather. Yes, I just said that. I’m pretty sure I just given it all I had to ‘Uptown Funk’ when the DJ changed the tune and went for a more country vibe. The Cotton Eye Joe. A crowd favorite…or at least one that gets everyone on the dance floor. I was happily doing the ‘Kick Kick 123’ with a giddy grin when all of a sudden, it happened. Coming back on the left side of my left foot, I rolled my ankle and when I did, I could feel something go wrong. Thankfully the song was pretty much over and not wanting to embarrass myself, I quickly composed myself and held back the tears that were suddenly stinging my eyes. ‘I’m fine,’ I though to myself. NO BIG DEAL. Well, as I tried to hobble off the dance floor, I had to bite my lip so that I wouldn’t scream in pain. Sitting down in my chair, I calmly leaned over to my then fiancé and whispered, ‘Um, so I think I’m injured…’ The scene that followed that conversation was straight out of a RomCom movie with my cute soon-to-be hubby scooping me up and carrying me all ‘knight in shining armor’ like to the car. That part I didn’t mind!
The next day at the Dr office, the X-ray tech was so amazed at my break that he let out a shriek of ‘WOAH’ from behind me. Made me feel reeeeall good. With 24 days until my own wedding and 3 months of needed healing time, it made for quite a story. I had to cancel two of the weddings I was contracted to photograph which was heartbreaking for me. (If you two are reading this, THANK YOU again for being so understanding). Not only that, but our Italian honeymoon had to be postponed for a year and most important in my mind was how it would affect my own wedding day. You might say I was a bit bummed.
The funny thing is that it was indeed a blessing in disguise. That broken foot showed me that even though I think that I am, I am indeed not invincible. Mostly though, it reminded me that the true joy of that season of my life was not to dance at my wedding, wear cute heels or even walk the beautiful streets of Italy. It was NOT to have a perfect wedding day. No, the true joy was to marry the love of my life and enter in to the God-honoring covenant of marriage. Broken foot or not, that was going to happen. (You can read more of my thoughts on this here where I wrote about ‘Giving Perfection the Boot..Literally.’)
As I look back on that day and the old ‘Cotton Eye Joe fiasco of 2015’, I smile. Believe me, it was NOT funny at the time and I had many moments of self-pity but now, a year later, I find myself being thankful. Thankful that God knew I needed a little bit of a broken foot to set my eyes on the right things.
In case you are wondering, we are getting to go to Italy in a couple months (whoo hoo!!!) and I still haven’t gotten up the guts to dance to the Cotton Eye Joe again…
So, in the name of broken feet and blessings in disguise,
I Say, Take Me Back!
**Just as an example of why I love photography, here is a shot of me dancing at that wedding the exact moment that my foot rolled and I snapped my metatarsal in two. Judging by my face, I was blissfully ignorant of what was about to happen. Oh photography, you sure do preserve memories forever! Shout out to Emily Davis Photography for the photo. Perfect timing!
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