Preservation

Today was a good day, I kicked it off by starting a new job as a donor processor at a plasma collection center here. That was pretty normal, run of the mill first day stuff... paper work, talk about 401k plans, insurance, job duties, and more paper work. After that I went home and watched a movie with Benjamin (pronounced bean-ha-mean). Then things got interesting. 

You see, today was the day Ben went to his very first wild-land fire call. (Husbands. They grow up on you so fast. One minute you're feeding 'em sweet tarts and the next you're dropping them off to go fight forest fires. Literally.)  So now he's probably asleep on a mountain side, I'll see him again... sometime. No idea when, but sometime when the fire is out. 

ANYWAYS, after I dropped him off with a bunch of dirty smelly men (and a couple dirty smelly women) I headed back to good ole' Rexburger. Just as I was getting away from their camp site I noticed two dear crossing the road a ways in front of me. About at that point I said a quick prayer that I would know what to do when I came upon an animal suddenly in the road. I kept on saying this prayer for about 100 miles. I kept meaning to say "if I encounter an animal suddenly in the road" (power of positive thinking and such.) but somehow it kept coming to mind as "when I encounter an animal." After a bit I thought, "hum, where is my phone." So I was feeling around in the car for it for a moment or two before getting the impression to pay very close attention to the road so I did. Not 10 seconds later, at 65 miles and hour, I saw in my headlights a large furry grey... mass in the middle of my lane! (I have no idea what animal it was. If it was a dear, it was a huge dear that decided to curl up for a little nappy-poo in the middle of the highway.) So I immediately slammed the brakes and turned the wheel. Now, if your thinking, "If my memory serves me, I believe that those are the exact ingredients for a tail spin." you would be right. 


Though I really wanted to freak out, I'm not sure I've ever been so clear headed. As I started to spin, I got the impression that I should relax a bit. I'm not sure when I let off the brakes or what I did with the steering wheel, But I believe that it was exactly what I was supposed to do. With a cloud of dust that surrounded every inch of window space, I couldn't see a thing that was going on as my car spun and rolled back into a deep ditch I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming peace. At a certain moment when I was rolling backwards into a ditch I felt that at that instant I should press the brakes, so I did. My car came to a stop about 1 foot away from a mean looking metal fence, and I was safe. My car must have turned it's self off (handy safety feature). So I turned it back on and tried to drive out of the ditch. I could hear the wheels turn but I didn't move. At this point I was panic stricken, after all I was stranded in a ditch in the middle of nowhere and I couldn't find my phone (later to discover it was in the front pocket of my jacket, but it couldn't feel it over the seat belt. LAME SAUCE.) So I took a deep breath and again, I felt that I should just put it in a lower gear, and slowly try again, so I did. I got back on the highway, I was safe and my car didn't even have a scratch (at least not that I can tell. It was dark and iPods aren't exactly flood lamps.)

I believe in miracles. Maybe this was a miracle, maybe it wasn't. I know that even in a time of crisis, the Spirit of the Lord can communicate with us clearly and calmly, and that is just one way that our prayers where answered. I'm thankful that I and my car made it home safe tonight, goodness knows we couldn't stand to lose another vehicle. As I said at the beginning of this post, today was a good day. 

KJV Psm. 145