I know how Tiger Woods feels. You see, I too fell from a tremendous height.

The other day, after overdosing on HGTV, I decided to remove the popcorn ceilings from the rooms in my house. If any of you have ever done this, you know it is easily the messiest job one can attempt. No matter what you do, you are gonna eat a lot of dust. And you will eat more popcorn than Orville Reddenbacher bags in a year.

So, if you can imagine, there I was perched atop a ladder wearing a comfortable old work dress. Feeling secure in the part I had already successfully done. Thinking how crazy others are for paying someone to do what I had discovered was quite an easy task -- except for the dust.

Then it happened!

I had already scraped the popcorn from the patch of ceiling closest to me and was stretching to reach a bit further out. Maybe I moved the wrong way. Or maybe that tricky ladder actually eased over a bit. In any case, down I crashed.

Tiger, I know what it feels like to take the big fall.

Everything moves in slow motion. You think that you may be able to save yourself by clutching at anything to break your fall. You don't quite believe that you are actually going to fall all the way down. But you do.

And Tiger, I know you will understand what I mean when I say: If you could just fall quietly. If only you could fall and not have others hear it.

But nooooooooooooooooooooo! When you crash from the top, you make a lot of noise. You kick up a lot of dust. Andy everyone hears and comes runnin'.

So there you are. Sprawled out in the floor. All yo’ stuff showin’ for the whole world to see. And you sit there. Afraid to move. Trying to assess the damage. "How badly am I hurt ? I'm not killed. Am I broken?"

The first instinct for the people who surround you is to try to immediately help you up. You don't want to be touched. "Just let me sit here a minute. Don't touch me. I need to make sure I'm ok."

You want to cry. You do cry.

After a while you realize that you are going to be alright. You look up at the faces of the people surrounding you. Some are frightened for you. Some are sympathetic. Some are biting their lips to hold back the laughter. You can read their minds: "Look at you, stupid! Flat on your ass in the dirt."

So finally you reach out to someone to let them help you up. You check yourself over. You medicine your bruises, shake off the dust, pick the popcorn outa your drawers and you keep on going. And you make up your mind that you will not let that happen again.

You decide that maybe you shouldn't stretch yourself out so far from your home base. That you had better always make sure you stand on solid footing. Even tigers don't always land on their feet. Through that one hard lesson you come to understand what led to the fall and you don't take those chances again.

Tomorrow your bruises will start to fade. And each day you will feel a little less foolish. You will come to know that many others have fallen and gotten back up. Pretty soon we will be the spectator, standing over someone else’s fall. Deciding whether to laugh or to show sympathy. Before you know it you will be at the top of your ladder again. Getting it done.

And, Tiger, maybe you and I should decide that we won't try EVERYTHING we see on TV.

D. Barbara McWhite grew up in York County and lives in Orange Park, Fla., with her husband and cat.

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