The past 11 days have been unsettling…
…from several personal directions…
…all vastly important.
In the course of living out our lives here in Parker, CO, we go through this intersection some days times per day. This view is looking west from North Clarke Farms Drive. The car is heading north on Jordan Road.
Sunday afternoon, November 1, 2015, at about 2:30pm, I was a mile from concluding that day’s walk/run. The lights were clearly in my favor. Traffic was stopped allowing me to get across Jordan in the direction from where I took this picture.
So…….picking up my pace, I headed across Jordan Road.
Half way across, out of nowhere, coming right at me, a small station wagon came roaring into the intersection and in that split second turned right toward me, heading on to Jordan Road to go south. Three cars were stopped at the intersection…and all three laid on their horns.
What took place next happened so fast that all I could do is let out a roar of, “Whoa…….!!!” as the car headed right toward me. I thought I was done. So did everyone in the three cars.
One woman was already dialing 911. Her husband, driving their car, and two other men were out of their cars and running my direction.
The small wagon that headed right for me, turning left, south, across that crosswalk, did stop for a moment, then roared off. No one got the license number. But…there I was…still standing…........shaken.
All four of those people said the same thing: “There is no way he could have avoided hitting you. We knew you were done.” One man said, “It was almost like he drove right through you.”
The older couple, Asian by ethnicity, walked me over to where this picture was taken from, and stayed with me for a few minutes. That is when she quietly said she was already calling 911.
They wanted to drive me home, but I told them that some how, I was OK. Some how. And that I needed to walk the remaining mile home to let this settle in. I thanked them for their care. They got in their car and left. I stood there pondering what had just taken place.
Yes………..I was shaken.
The next morning, getting up to go to the Parker Rec Center to work out, I did stop to take some pictures of this intersection. Partly what was amazing is that getting my workout clothes on that Monday morning, there was a brown stripe, a smudge of grim and dirt down the left side of front of my clothes where the car had passed by me.
I stood there, tears then, tears now here in my office, wondering what a split second more would have been like. Today I am shaken with gratitude. Humbled that I walked away. Still stunned by what did…and did not…happen.
I wish I could have a conversation with those four people who witnessed that moment. Who were out of their cars running toward me. Who all agreed that it seemed like that car went right through me. One man said that when I yelled “Whoa…!” he had never heard a human yell so loud.
As of this day, today, November 11, 2015, I have been alive for 73 years, 5 months and 6 days. That is an accumulated total of 26,822 days.
I’ve always been a man who is committed to living fully each day. As I continue to ponder what did…and what didn’t happen…two Sundays ago...I am care-filled-ly and purpose-filled-ly pondering often some of the “whys” that I am here...........still.
What are the continuing reasons that I am still here, standing, watching it snow out my office window?
What do I need to be about to live, fully, into those reasons?
How will I take that split second in time as a profound gift to become even more the man, the person, the human, I was created to be?
What, today, do I need to embrace?
What, today, to I need to let go of?
What will be my best choices to live life to the fullest, in all the 8 Dimensions of my own life?
Obviously, I’ve no clue who may even read these words. But should you have made it down this far in my personal blog post this snow-filled morning, I encourage you to also pause and form some answers to those same questions. Please read them again for yourself.
And now…more gladly than ever, I’ve got some snow to shovel before one of the exceptional men I mentor shows up for scrambled eggs and muffins…
This day is also waiting for you to be fully alive!
How will you also be choosing to live it...to the max?!!!?
Wow! God is so good, Wes! I thank Him that He spared your life for you, your friends and your family. Love you!
Posted by: Toni Soneff | November 11, 2015 at 12:28 PM