I was on a two lane highway between Lincoln and Wheatland at night. Everyone was going about 65mph. I was the ONLY one in my lane that I had seen for about 10 miles and the lane going the opposite direction was pretty busy. Every car was at least 3 car lengths away from the next. As I was driving along, I saw a car on my side of the road up ahead with his left turn signal on trying to find an opening. He must have been only looking to the right, assuming my lane was empty, because he raced out not even 20 feet in front of me.
At that moment, I didn't even have enough time to think. Instinct took over.. The other driver froze with fear in the middle of the road (because no one let him in the other lane) as I raced toward him, probably thinking he was about to die. I would have bashed into his driver side going at least 65mph. I swerved left into the oncoming traffic, not even thinking going right (into a ditch) was an option. The first car flew out of my way and off the road, and as I was about to collide head on with the next car I braced myself for impact, my wheel turned harsh right back into my lane barely missing the car that was still horizontal in the road. All of this happened in a matter of a few seconds but time seemed to slow down..
I opened my eyes, looked in my rear mirror, still not breathing. I looked straight ahead in shock, still not sure how I made it back in my lane unscathed. Then I had an utter mental and emotional breakdown and LOST. IT. I was on my way to a meeting, so I had to pull myself together fairly quickly. I was shaking from all the adrenaline and so many things were racing through my mind...Besides the obvious ("I just almost killed someone!" "I just almost died!" so forth and so on)..
The people that came to mind were my family and close friends.. and also people from my past. I found myself remembering the last things I've said to them or that they've said to me. There's so many things I still wanted to say.. embraces I wanted to make. And I thought about people who've hurt me so much.. and wondered how they'd feel upon realizing that was the last thing they'd be able to say to me as well. What's interesting is I didn't even care about my "bucket list".. it was all about relationships.
All I know is tonight made me think really hard about what's important and what's just plain trivial. Every word I say to someone has so much more weight somehow.. because I may not see them again or they may not see me again.
I thank God for sparing me and everyone involved. It could have been so much worse...
Psalm 68:20 "God is a God of deliverance; and to God the Lord belong escapes from death."
At that moment, I didn't even have enough time to think. Instinct took over.. The other driver froze with fear in the middle of the road (because no one let him in the other lane) as I raced toward him, probably thinking he was about to die. I would have bashed into his driver side going at least 65mph. I swerved left into the oncoming traffic, not even thinking going right (into a ditch) was an option. The first car flew out of my way and off the road, and as I was about to collide head on with the next car I braced myself for impact, my wheel turned harsh right back into my lane barely missing the car that was still horizontal in the road. All of this happened in a matter of a few seconds but time seemed to slow down..
I opened my eyes, looked in my rear mirror, still not breathing. I looked straight ahead in shock, still not sure how I made it back in my lane unscathed. Then I had an utter mental and emotional breakdown and LOST. IT. I was on my way to a meeting, so I had to pull myself together fairly quickly. I was shaking from all the adrenaline and so many things were racing through my mind...Besides the obvious ("I just almost killed someone!" "I just almost died!" so forth and so on)..
The people that came to mind were my family and close friends.. and also people from my past. I found myself remembering the last things I've said to them or that they've said to me. There's so many things I still wanted to say.. embraces I wanted to make. And I thought about people who've hurt me so much.. and wondered how they'd feel upon realizing that was the last thing they'd be able to say to me as well. What's interesting is I didn't even care about my "bucket list".. it was all about relationships.
All I know is tonight made me think really hard about what's important and what's just plain trivial. Every word I say to someone has so much more weight somehow.. because I may not see them again or they may not see me again.
I thank God for sparing me and everyone involved. It could have been so much worse...
Psalm 68:20 "God is a God of deliverance; and to God the Lord belong escapes from death."
No comments:
Post a Comment