Wake Up Call

Do you ever notice an occurrence that is so common it's like a kick in the head over and over? There's a phrase that has come to my mind more than once recently -- "turn on a dime." How our lives can turn on a dime. How, in one brief moment your world can stop spinning, and instantaneously spin in another direction.

Last week at gymnastics we learned that Faith's favorite instructor was in a car accident. In one brief moment she reached down to pick something up and the next thing she knew she was having surgery for a broken jaw, among other things. I thought, "Wow, her life turned on a dime."

My mom's best friend had a nagging cough late in the spring -- not for long, but bad enough to send her to the doctor. She's now losing her hair from the chemo drugs for the lymphoma the doctors discovered -- Stage 3. Again - turned on a dime.

And last night, after having a lovely, relaxing dinner out with a girlfriend, I came home to learn that one of my oldest friends lost her son to a water skiing accident on Sunday. There one moment, gone the next. She has already lost one child -- a baby son. Now, again, her life has turned on a dime. As has her husband's and her other sons'.

So, I'm taking a few days away from the computer to think about life, hug my kids, go to my girlfriend and then to her son's funeral. And pray, and pray, and pray. You never know when your life will turn on a dime.

Last night after we finally went to bed and I was laying there trying to read, but not being able to stop thinking about my girlfriend and her family, we heard the sound of a terrible car crash through the open windows. The kind where you hear the squealing tires and wait for the impact. As the crow flies, it was probably less than 50 yards. We listened for the sound of sirens, and then we heard Lifeflight landing. This morning I learned that the car hit a tree and the driver died. Just that fast, in the time it took for her tires to stop squealing, the world of a 30-year-old woman just stopped spinning.


UPDATE: We learned today, after the autopsy, that my girlfriend's son had an enlarged heart. Apparently, while he was water skiing, his heart just stopped. That doesn't change the outcome, of course.