October 21, 2009

• {A bumpy ride}
  
  
  It had been One.Of.Those.Days.
  
  
  I got home yesterday afternoon after being gone over the weekend,
  so this morning was back to reality in it’s fullest…
  
  a little girl who wet the bed and had to be in the tub at o’dark something.
  school projects that couldn’t be found -
  only to find I’d thrown away the school project!!!
  oopps.
  (common occurrence around here…
  my husband jokes if he sat still long enough I’d throw him away)
  kids rooms that looked like mom hadn’t been here all weekend.
  with dishes and laundry to match.
  with quarrely kids to match.
  with stuffy nose/ sick with cold mom to match..
  equaling crankiness all around!
  
  In the afternoon we set out for music lessons.
  Running late.. but, of course!
  Couldn’t be music lessons if we weren’t late.
  (I think the teacher tells me the lessons are a half hour earlier than they are –
  because she never acts overly bothered….
  we’re probably getting there right on time!!)
  
  The way there is through farm country.
  Very narrow roads without any shoulder on the side.
  
  Ben and Emma had been fussing at each other…
  and I was trying to give my “treat others as you want to be treated” speech.
  I turned around to make eye contact with Ben to drive home a point,
  when Kate said all too calmly, in her Kate kind of voice…
  
  “Uh… MOM!”
  
  I looked up to see a mailbox directly in front of me…
  and before I had time to figure out why in the world a mailbox was in the middle of the road,
  I slammed into it and watched it fly straight up in the air!
  
  About the time it sunk in that the mailbox was not in the middle of the road,
  but rather WE WERE OFF IT!
  I hit another and saw it go flying also…
  
  I tried pulling the van back up, but it was muddy
  and our right side was down pretty deep in the ditch….
  
  I think it fully sunk in on me what was happening
  when I saw the next thing we would hit would be
  a telephone pole…

  
  I jerked the wheel up hard.

  ….we came back on the road swerving from side to side.
  I could hear the sound of brakes squealing from somewhere off in the distance it seemed.
  
  All I could think was …
  
  “What are you supposed to do when you’re sliding on ice?”
  
  Guess I thought sliding on pavement factored in that category too..
  
  I was pretty sure the van was going to flip.
  
  After what seemed like a terribly long, long pause
  of waiting and wondering what was going to happen next –
  suddenly we stopped.
  Sideways, and on the other side of the road…
  with burnt rubber behind us,
  and smoke coming out of the engine in front.
  
  I turned the wheel and got back on the right side…
  immediately hearing a thump.thump.thump.
  and knowing the tire was flat.
  
  I pulled in the nearest driveway and got out.
  The damage was worse than I thought.
  And when I looked back up the road at the tire tracks
  off the road with the trail of mud and rubber marks that
  followed back up on the road…
   
  I think only then did my heart start racing fast and tears instantly rise to my eyes at the realization of how bad it could have been.
  
  The lady at the house we pulled into had been mowing her lawn…
  she quickly came over asking if we were alright.
  She was a sweet grandmotherly type too.
  Exactly the comfort I needed at that moment.
  
  She kept saying…
  
  “Are you sure you’re okay honey. You look awfully pale…
  come sit down on my porch.. do you have a husband to call?
  You want a soda? I think you need a soda. Kids, you want a soda?
  Come on up… sit down… let me get you something cold to drink….”
  
  Her name was Sharon. And I want to take her back a gift for her kindness~
  
  Shayne got there eventually.
  The van had to be towed.
  
  We piled in his truck to head home…
  stopping at the houses whose mailboxes I’d taken out –
  to explain what had happened and let them know we’d be
  replacing them….
  
  As Shayne was talking to the man at the first house I looked on
  either side of the drive and saw my tire tracks through the yard….
  
  Two things came to mind -
  
  a). Life is about people. precious eternal souls….
  
  And that’s pretty much it.
  
  All this other stuff…
  
  nice homes filled with nice things.
  school projects.
  things that break
  get ruined and wrecked…
  
  none of it matters.
  
  none of it.
  
  And 2). Life is about perspective….
  
  not sitting thinking and wondering…
  
  “Why us, God? Why did you let this happen…?”
  
  Instead.. seeing those tire marks within inches of that telephone pole and concluding – -
  
  “Wow! Thank you God … you were with us. You protected us. You kept us.”
  
  How many times in life do we not even know of the “telephone poles” He’s kept us from crashing into!!!
  
  Perspective.
  
  “Why me?” or “Wow God!”
  
  I still feel my heart begin to pump faster as it all flashes back in my mind…
  you always live with the “what if’s?” for awhile after something like that.
  
  I’ve never had any kind of car accident in my life – - so just everything considered…
  was pretty shaken about it. I think I’m feeling guilty too…
  Was I driving too fast?
  Not paying attention?
  I shouldn’t have turned around to look at Ben!
  I should have been more on time for lessons!
  
  just some emotions I’m sure I’ll process in the next few days…
  
  Still – - ultimately though just completely, utterly, undoubtedly so grateful
  for His protection.. the gentle reminders of the eternal..
  self pity versus seeing God in everything…
  the gift of my children… of my husband..
  of the lady on the lawn mower.
  
  we truly are in His hands.

  

  

  

  I trust in you, O Lord;
  I say, ‘You are my God.’
  My times are in your hand. Psalm 31:14,15.
  
  ——-
  
  After we had pulled over to the driveway
  I got out and opened the side door for Emma.
  
  She stood up from her seat and sorta peered out
  looking back and forth
  with a rather cautious look on her face…
  
  I suppose when she assessed all was now safe she jumped down
  with her usual energy and looked up at me with a huge grin…
  
  
  “Whoa mommy… Dat was wheelly a bumpy wide…..!!”

  
  “It sure was a bumpy ride, baby.”

  I smiled.

  then sighed.
  
  
  
  Glad tomorrow is a new day!!
   
  
  
  
  
  amber.
  

  • 11:50 pm
  • 57 Comments