15 Minutes
Morning drive to work on week days is always a challenge. The traffic along the route that I take everyday is really bad, not to mention the questionable safety consciousness and courtesy of motorists. I consider myself a safe and defensive driver but unforseen incidents do happen on the road. A short prayer said for guidance and protection before I ease my car out of the driveway, gives me peace of mind and confidence while driving.
As soon as I hit the road, I am already picturing out the scene along Freeway 280: merge…accelerate…slow down…break…change lane. I live 6 miles away from work. Including stops at signal lights, the usual driving time from home to work is about 10-15 minutes but with the constraint of traffic, it could take me 20-25 minutes to reach my destination; more time will be wasted if there is an accident. For years now, I have mastered the time frame that I have set and religiously follow every single day, and I’m very good at it. Breaking away from this daily routine brings out a disconcerting feeling to me.
Sometimes, things happen beyond my control. One day, situations were so not in my favor and for a reason or reasons I could not understand, I had a disastrous morning. Electric current tripped while I was blow-drying my hair. No power, no light. “Great, just great! Now, what will I do?” I muttered to myself. I am not an electrician but I’ve seen our maintenance guy at work, switch the circuit breaker off and on to restore the power. And, that’s what I did! I then hastily changed into my work clothes, put on my make-up, grabbed my briefcase and slung my purse on my shoulder then ran downstairs and slipped on to my comfortable working shoes. As I closed the main door, I felt something was lacking. Dang! I forgot to put my eye glasses on. How am I supposed to read and drive without my glasses? Of course I have to go back inside to get it. Now, I could not hide my irritated mood, as I knew I will be late for work. Finally, I got in my car and backed out of the garage. The final test of my patience and self-control was when I pushed my remote control to close the garage door…did not happen. “What now?” I repeatedly pushed the button so hard, that perhaps, if that remote control could talk, I must have heard nasty remarks…or better yet, I was yelled at. Hanging on to the self-control and sanity that was left in me, I got out of the car to manually close the garage door. I did not even get to figure out why this door acted up. My pre-occupied brain could no longer process sanely, considering the mishaps that occurred earlier. The sure thing I knew: I will be late for work, and was not happy about it.
As expected, the traffic was bumper to bumper as soon as I made my exit towards the freeway. The cars were moving like turtles, so slow that I was beginning to get restless, and irritation and impatience were all over me. Even the soothing music from my CD player could not neutralize my nerves. As my car moved slowly following the rest of the cars, I could see from a visual distance that a fatal accident happened. By the look of a woman being pulled out by paramedics from a totally wrecked car similar to mine, she was badly hurt, or, maybe dead? My body felt numb, my heart beat was racing, and my hands were trembling as I gripped the steering wheel. “My God! That could have been me, had I left the house 15 minutes earlier.”
I believe miracles do happen every day in so many different ways and means. The 15 minutes that I got stalled, was in reality a Divine Intervention.
-Lark_
12.10.2011
Wings Of A Nightingale 