Saturday, March 29, 2008

Change of Perspective

Last Wednesday, I woke up having a bad day. I'm not sure why, but I woke up royally ticked. As the hours passed, I didn't start to feel better, I got angrier and angrier until I felt like I would bust. Then I got a change of perspective. And not in a way I would have ever expected.
My friend Emily had just closed on her house and was so excited to have bought her first home. We decided to head somewhere for dinner to celebrate. As we were heading toward the restaurant, we came upon some flashing lights and changed lanes to go around whatever had happened. Just as we were pulling up to the scene, a second cop car arrived - no sirens, just flashing lights - to an accident scene so fresh that streets hadn't yet been blocked.
Just moments before, there had been a horrific car wreck - two cars, head on (though you couldn't tell by the scene we saw) one on top of the other, but what ripped my heart from my chest was the closer we got, the more of the scene we could see...I saw shoes...small shoes...and then I saw a girl...just lying in the street, right beneath the passenger door of the bottom car. Then we saw a woman, back behind the wreck, lying on the sidewalk. There was no question in my mind - they were both dead.

My perspective changed...My anger dissipated as we sat next to the scene waiting for the light to change so we could continue on, though no longer hungry. Seconds, minutes can make such a huge difference. Just a few minutes faster and that could have been Emily and I - in that moment I realized my anger was unfounded. I had no reason to be angry and that I have the ability to choose not to be.
By Friday, many of the missing pieces had been filled in through news stories about what happened. My heart broke the moment I saw those shoes and it continues to break for that mom and her daughter and the family and friends that will miss them so much.

http://cbs11tv.com/local/seizure.crash.Irving.2.686458.html