The accident
No, not my accident. We had guests visiting from Auckland this weekend and they brought along their 16 year old daughter. On Sunday morning she asked if she could take the car for a drive just to have something to do. Her mother wanted to say no but feared an argument that would embarrass her so she said yes. All the warnings were given – don’t drive too fast, be careful, don’t be gone long. All the things that anyone would say to a kid going for a drive in unfamiliar territory.
About 45 minutes later, in she comes, sobbing and wailing with a woman who’d been kind enough to pick her up after she went around a corner twice as fast as the printed speed limit. She hit soft gravel and spun around a few times and smashed her car into a dirt bank. The car was a total wreck and had to be towed to our house where it remains. Family had to drive up from Auckland to pick them up and take them back home. Their entire family was concerned about the accident and what the loss of the car would mean to their daughter / granddaughter.
Initially my husband was not popular when he said it was the best accident she could have.
“Any accident that a 16 year old can walk away from is a good lesson to learn,” he said.
I have to agree with him. Once she was a bit calmer and we’d driven over an hour to the hospital (we’re pretty remote here) to ensure that she wasn’t hurt, she accepted that she drove too fast and while devastated that she no longer had a car of her own, it was a lesson she’d never forget.
After they’d left and I’d cleaned up from the dinner I’d prepared for everyone I thought about what lessons I’d learned for myself in all of that. For me it was a reminder that you never know when your time is up. It could be 50 years from now or you could get hit by a bus tomorrow or there could be an earthquake or well, anything at all really.
Life is all about today. Yesterday is history and you can’t relive or rewrite it and tomorrow might come, might not, so why worry about it? I need to live more in the now and stop thinking about what life’s going to be like when I’m not fat any more or when I have more money or when I can finally have a vacation or when the house is clean – you get my point. I find myself looking forward all the time rather than enjoying my here and now. I’m going to do better.