I mentally ran through the list of last-minute work I needed to accomplish in the next 48 hours. I was really down to the wire, and so sick of stress. I wished I didn't have to worry about any of these things, because I was so miserable. I was rushing down the bypass to get home so I could get started on my to-do list of about 70 things when I saw the brake lights.
Great. A traffic jam. This is awesome- I've got to get home! It's like the whole world is conspiring against me.
That's when I saw the ambulance lights.
Oh no.
Reality hit, in the form of a 18-wheeler. As traffic slowed, I got a close up look at the damage. The car that had been on the receiving end of the truck looked about a decade older than I am. The truck hit the drivers side, and it did not look like a hopeful situation, judging by the 5 ambulances, 7 police cars, and 14 men crowded around the passenger door with a gurney, trying to rescue the victim.
I know nothing about this person. Whether they lived or died, whether they were young or old, if it was a man or a woman... I know nothing of them. But what I do know, is that no matter how colossal your problems may seem, none of it really matters in the Grand Scheme- because you're alive. Problems or no problems, you are breathing. It's almost laughable how stupid all my "problems" seem in light of that accident scene. It's affected me more than I thought it would.
We don't know when our time will be up. So we must live every moment as if it's our last. I get that it sounds cheesy sometimes, but it's the honest-to-goodness truth. Take a lesson from the accident this afternoon. I did.
"You can't do anything about the length of your life,
but you can do something about its width and depth."
Henry Louis Mencken
