I have a favorite (& truly astonishing) television program I love to watch. Hate to be a tease, but more about that in a minute. It’s not the actual point I want to make just yet….
But a funny thing happened on the way to watching it the other evening. Before I got to the right channel, my eyes (& heart) got caught by another program, one of those “here-is-a-dramatic-and-horrendous-story-of-violent-and-tragic-things-that-happen-but-don’t-worry-all-ends-well.” (did you know that was a genre? I just made that up…)
Photo by Elizabeth Good
I am almost never drawn to these types of sensational, adrenaline-promoting TV shows (perhaps there is enough drama in my own life!). Seeing that this happened on a highway between Santa Barbara and Ventura in California, where I’ve driven many times, was what pulled me in.
Well it turned out this was an AMAZING story (even though I had to occasionally flip back over to the “favorite show” channel from time to time, lest I be completely non-fidelitous). A woman driving with her 2 kids got into an almost unimaginably terrible accident, where the car got crumpled AND was hanging between 2 bridges quite precariously. But after much diligent, painstaking work by local paramedics, the rescuers were about to give up, as the car seemed sure to fall into the ravine if they kept on with what they were doing. Damned if they did continue; damned if they didn’t.
The amazing part of this miracle story, which led me to cry tears (normally invoked by the other “favorite” program), was that, just by “chance,” a team of soldiers had left 90 minutes later than they had planned, for a trip on the same highway, arriving at the scene of the accident right when it happened. Why did they leave 90 minutes late? Because they unexpectedly had to load and bring a state-of-the-art ginormous forklift that had unusual, flexible capacities unlike any normal forklift. The woman and her children were saved by this forklift and “unlikely” set of circumstances (I get chills writing about it!).
While this opened my heart and brought me to tears, I also thought, “But why did she have to go through this in the first place?” Yes I think like that…I don’t like that suffering has to happen to begin with!
She stated with some emotion, as the program closed out, that she loves hearing her girls bicker now; that even that is music to her ears.
I could psychically see that this woman needed that type of “wake up call” to get into a deeper appreciation of her life and its gifts.
I don’t, of course, think everyone needs—(nor obviously gets)—that type of intensity (or saving grace). But it was one of those moments that had me pondering why life is the way it is here on Planet Terra.
What have you experienced personally, or observed in loved ones, that reminds you of this type of soul-directed “wake up call”?
Oh, and your reward for reading the whole post: my aforementioned favorite TV program is ABC’s What Would You Do? Check it out sometime!
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