So A Little Thing Happened On The Way to Breakfast --

"He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand."  ... Psalm 40:2

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So. There we were on our way to breakfast Saturday morning, but first, Tom wanted to pull over in front of a car lot for, on Friday, he'd spied what he believed was our old faithful car of 14 years.

He began slowing down from 50 mph so we could drive into the car lot's official pull-off lane, turned on his blinker, then a car from a side street pulled out in front of us.

Oh my. As if in slow motion, Tom pressed down hard on the brake and as the car crossed before us, I thought (seriously),"No! It's a nightmare to deal with car insurance claims! We can't hit him!"

But we did. 

Or rather, his car went scraaaaaape against our front, mostly the driver's side hood half, and kept going. He crossed the four lanes of traffic, then eventually circled back to us. We simply drove into the pull-out lane as we'd intended and stopped--

--thoroughly feeling bummed-out and well, mad. 

While Tom gathered the insurance card, I got out and surveyed the damage which--ok--wasn't horrible, but still, sickening. Our 'new' car! The one we've still got a year to pay on.

Tom and I walked back to the young (30-ish) guy and I stared at him and shouted over the traffic, "Thanks a lot!" Then left it at that. Hey, I read the stories about these things escalating. I'm no fool. (Tom later kidded me about acting so irate in public. heh.)

He tried to convince us it was our fault, that we'd had the blinker on so he thought (assumed) that we were going to turn rather than just drive beyond the turn and into the pull-off lane. I said, "Ha! He (Tom) was going too fast for that. You should have waited."

Then I said nothing else to him. 

I let Tom and him hash it out, then the guy called the police. (Tom had forgotten his phone at work and declared he'll never do that again.) We both waited, staring at our poor, dinged-up car.

Anyway. A cop came and later, after handing us the accident report, told us we shouldn't have any problems. Said the other driver, though, probably would. Meaning, the cop, too, knew it hadn't been Tom's fault.

Sigh. There was no breakfast out--who could eat? I wanted simply to go home, but Tom stopped at a couple yard sales where we bought nothing, not feeling like that, either. 

We got home, I facebook'd what had happened, Tom called our insurance agent, then later we ordered out for Chinese and watched a couple movies.

We tried to keep it all in perspective. We did, but hey, being human and having been in an accident, well, it's those emotions which go pecking at your head for a couple days which you have to watch out for--and tell to go away in Jesus' name. You know, seeing the accident happen over and over and hearing these --

"What if (this horrible thing) had happened instead?"
"What a headache it'll be dealing with the insurance company."
"If only you'd gone someplace else for breakfast." (Woulda, coulda, shoulda...)
"That's a too-fast, scary world out there. From now on, you need to stay home more."
"The good times are, like, over."


If you've ever experienced an accident or other trauma, well, you know.

But instead of soaking in all that stuff, welcoming it, sinking beneath it--Tom and I know better. We've experienced this before, learned from it--

You acknowledge the emotions, but don't take a bath in them. Instead, you ask God to help you move forward.
You remind yourself God is greater than heavy, annoying emotions.
And that soon--while relying on God for help--Life will feel good again.
And you'll come away more sensitive to others when they experience rough times. You'll more likely know what to say--or what not to.
And that's a valuable thing.


But, yes. Patience is required. And keeping one's head, one's faith and always believing--


"All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well."   .... Julian of Norwich


---in time, because of this huge God who has us--and this whole world--in His hands.

Every day we have plenty of opportunities to get angry, stressed or offended. But what you're doing when you indulge these negative emotions is giving something outside yourself power over your happiness. You can choose to not let little things upset you. ............Joel Osteen


A special thanks to all who expressed their concern over our accident this weekend at Facebook. We super appreciated your kind words and that you took the time to share them. Many people never realize the power of offering comforting words--but really, words do much to help the healing process.


Oh and everyone here and anywhere--please be assured that Tom and I realize our accident could have been a million times worse! We do. And seriously, we're grateful it wasn't.


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Oh, and was that actually our old car in the lot? Yes, yes it was. We recognized it from all the tiny scratches we'd put on it over 14 years.  😊 I wonder what the odds are that we'd have an accident in front of our former car which we'd not seen in 2 years?

Weird.


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And after experiencing my weekend bout(s) with anger (and just living in Today's world), this stood out to me at Twitter this morning---

Carlos A. Rodríguez‏ @HappySonship 9h9 hours ago

The haters want to turn you into a hater. But your heart was designed for love. Radical, extravagant, makes-no-sense-in-this-day-and-age kinda love. So go ahead, brave warrior... Resist the temptation to hate. Love the haters. Love the good one. Love yourself.

Love.

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In another local real estate listing, I spied this room. Isn't it cozy (and don't you love those built-ins)?

And I also liked this updated kitchen in a different house (Tom did, also)--

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