Last night, I went to a superfoods talk, which was located around a 45-minute walk from home. On my way back, as I stood at the corner of an intersection waiting for the light to change, I heard a huge crash. I looked up from my phone and saw that two vehicles had collided. It happened on the opposite side of the street, so I looked carefully at the cars and the bystanders, and tried to assess the situation. Nobody moved for what felt like an eternity. Oh no, why isn't anybody moving?
I called 911, reported the accident, went over to the scene, and relayed instructions from the dispatcher. By this time, one of the drivers had gotten out of his car, and bystanders were assisting the other driver. This was a busy intersection in downtown Toronto, and fortunately, it looked like there were no serious injuries. Once I heard the ambulance arrive, I continued my walk home, told hubby what happened, and went on with the rest of my evening. At the time, I didn’t think the incident affected me very much, but perhaps it did.
For the first time in almost a month, I found it difficult to fall asleep.
For the first time in almost a month, I woke up in the middle of the night and lay awake for over an hour.
Yesterday was a sobering reminder that life can change in the blink of an eye. It’s so easy these days to be too busy and too distracted. I want to remind myself that it's important to look around, be aware of my surroundings, be kind to loved ones, and be patient with strangers. Let's not be so busy and so distracted.
Having lived in a big city pretty much my whole life, I’ve seen a lot of things I don’t share widely. These are stories I keep within me. I'm sure you have stories like this. Stories you start to share, but it doesn’t feel good, and it doesn’t feel right, so you stop. I wasn’t planning to share this today, but I’m trying to talk more about the difficult things, the dark things, the things that don’t make me happy.
It's tempting to paint a picture of a happy life on social media, because I want to be a source of happy inspiration. But I'm also trying to remember that sharing what makes us human is what makes us human. I'll share happy stuff tomorrow.
Stay safe, my friends. x
