Delay

I am very guilty of living in the future. My mind is sometimes racing with thoughts about what I need to accomplish in the next few hours, the next few days, the next few weeks--so much so that I really do forget to live in the moment.

Yesterday, my child "B" and I left from church to go for a ride. One of our favorite routes is a highway that goes from the valley up to Mt. Rainier. On a clear day, it is a gorgeous ride--and just long enough for B to maybe take a nap.

I was ready to go yesterday when a parishioner showed up just wanting to say hi. He only delayed us for about 5 minutes, but it may have been an important five minutes. As we left and made our way up out of the valley, several emergency vehicles passed us. Then more emergency vehicles passed us. I started counting and I'm not kidding, about 15 first responders (police, fire trucks, ambulances, etc) passed us by.

Just a few minutes up the road, we came to a stop. I could see all of the lights flashing up ahead. All I could tell is that there had been a wreck and it was pretty bad. As we sat there, two more emergency vehicles passed by. Clearly we were going to be sitting there for a long time, so I turned around and we went through to pick up some fast food for lunch (healthy, I know).

As we were pulling out, I saw two more firetrucks heading up to the accident scene and one ambulance coming back. I assumed the ambulance was rushing off to the hospital. As it passed by we could see the silhouettes of people standing and working on someone. I suggested that we pray. My little child agreed and we prayed for that person in the ambulance and the people who were working so hard to try to help them.

And I wondered, had not my parishioner, known for the gift of gab, stopped by to say "hi," would we have been in that wreck? or close enough to it that we would have seen what had taken place? I don't know, but it was a stark reminder of how life can change in an instant and how important it is to appreciate what you have right in front of you--even if it is the person who likes to talk a lot =). I must remember to thank him.

Journey on....