skidToday’s work agenda called for me to travel to Steubenville, Ohio early this morning. After dropping off “the boy” I immediately headed east for the approximately 3 hour journey. Getting to the freeway required several red traffic lights. I didn’t get too upset because the ETA on my GPS put me at my destination with some buffer time. This is not always the case. Lights can be a distraction, especially when we’re so busy and in a hurry. Slow traffic can also cause my chronically trending high blood pressure to jump a few points too.

About an hour or so into my journey, I came up on an accident that had just taken place. The smell of burning rubber was thick and the tracks on the freeway were fresh. No sooner did I pass the semi off the road in a ditch, the ambulance was just arriving. The police weren’t even there yet. I’m guessing I missed this accident by about 3-5 minutes. Roughly the time of one of those traffic lights.

Gulp.

Immediately my thoughts and prayers went to the driver of the vehicle. Seeing that help was on the way and arriving, I knew there was nothing I could do. I kept on my journey but I couldn’t help but think that we all have a date circled on our calendar (the driver of the truck was fine). When I left the house this morning I didn’t think for a moment that today could have been mine. As I sat at those lights or thought through the presentation I was giving later, I never entertained how thankful I would be to live to fight another day. You can bet I was thankful afterwards for that cold realization….

and for those traffic lights.

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