Things I learned from a car accident

We were having a great Sunday. Earl had just led our church in worship for the first time and to stay that I am proud of him is a major understatement. We decided to skip out on our normal, post-church haunts and try something new. He took me to an airy, plant-filled healthy fast food place. The food was good, the sun was shining. The birds were chirping. Life was really feeling good.

As we headed back to the city to prep for another event, we took 76. If you're from Philly or anywhere in the surrounding areas, you hate 76. It is a windy interstate where the traffic can be free-flowing one moment and come to a very sudden stop the next. 

Well, that happened. We barely had the chance to stop behind a red car. But the people behind us managed to swerve around us into the next lane. The white car behind them, not so lucky. I just knew they were about to slam into the back of us at 50+ miles per hour. 

No.

That didn't happen. I cannot explain it, and as I write this, I'm getting pretty emotional, because, somehow, the car behind us slid between us and the median on the left side of the car, just grazing Earl's mirror, and then slammed into the red car in front of us.

I couldn't speak for a few moments, fearing the worst. The doors of the white car opened and two passengers popped out, upset, understandably, but ok. The red car had managed to pull over, as did we. Everyone was fine. 

Things I learned:

God is real.  

I say that knowing full well that he is. But the common saying in Black church "He protects us from dangers seen and unseen really came alive for me in that very moment. That accident could have been way worse. But everyone walked away from it with our bodies intact. That alone is a blessing.

Life happens fast.

We were literally just chugging along, happily prattling on about something mundane or funny. I was playing on my phone and looking around at the road when we came to that sudden stop. there were milliseconds between that stop and the accident that ensued. Life can be this way. Situations shift quickly. Life can change in only moments and you may not have time to react or think or shift. It makes you appreciate those boring, mundane days even more. It makes those petty fights or arguments, those nasty moments, those gross parts of life seem so small in the grand scheme of things.

I expect the worst and that I need to stop that. 

Life, up until yesterday, has been pretty sweet. There had been too much good happening and, like the accident meter at a factory or job, as the days ticked past without incident, I realize that subconsciously, I had been anticipating the worst. And this accident was going to be it. I expected another car to come and finish the job that the white car missed. I expected to be spending the afternoon in a hospital or worse. But none of that happened. In fact, no one was hurt. This showed me an area of my thinking that I need to really do some work on.

Be ready to help.

I watched my boyfriend jump out of his car and make his way quickly to check on the other cars. I saw him hand out waters to the other three people involved. I watched him push the white car out of the road so that traffic could resume, in his dress clothes no less. He taught me, in that moment, to be ready to help, to be open to help, and to be willing to help.

These are all things yesterday's incident taught me. I'm sure, as I continue to process this, I will learn some more things, but for now, these are the four largest lessons for me.