Tuesday June 17, 2008 #45
“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
~Thornton Wilder
Submitted by regular contributor LG from Northern California. LG offers a great perspective from a harrowing experience.
I thought of another story which may be pretty timely given the recent natural disasters around the world. Here’s my story:
We’re always prepared for traffic accidents at dangerous times – a night, in the pouring rain, on a twisty road. I figured that I should always be extra careful when driving at night or in the rain or on a crowded street or on a windy road, so it came as a total surprise when I had the worst accident of my life in the middle of a sunny day on a road as straight as an arrow in the middle of nowhere. My wife and I were on our way to a Native American Pow-Wow on the Navajo reservation when a line of cars was lining up to make a left turn. The weather was clear – you could see for 100 miles – and the road was straight to the horizon, but a young man driving a huge pickup was tearing down the road and not paying attention and he rammed into our car at 40mph. We were both OK – I saw him coming in my rear view mirror and we were both wearing seat belts, but it wrecked our car and my wife and I were both pretty shaken up. We managed to finish our trip, but for the remainder of the trip we had the feeling that we “dodged a bullet”.
The first lesson learned was that you need to be prepared at ALL times for whatever life throws at you (an important lesson given today’s natural disasters)! The second lesson is to “be here now” because you never know when the ride is over!
Thank you, LG. Fellow JAMmers, your assignment today is to spend at least a few minutes thinking about right NOW – that magical moment when you realize with gratitude that you are here to experience this life.