When you feel the world is crashing all around your feet...

... come running headlong into my arms, breathless

[Breathless, Better than Ezra]

My heart is beating SO fast right now.

We won our softball game- 16-1 in only three innings. It's 75 and sunny- perfect driving with the windows down / sunroof open weather. Plus, my AC doesn't work, remember? But I was driving... a little fast. You know, 65 in a 55. Nothing crazy.

So there's a lumber mill-esque place just after you turn off of 158 and there's always lots of debris in the road. So I saw one piece in particular in the middle and made a mental note to not hit it. Only then I realized that it was MOVING. It was a FREAKING SNAKE! And I realized I was going to hit it, and then I had this horrible vision of my front driver's side tire flinging it up through my window so it could sink its fangs into the juicy flesh of my neck. (Not realistic at ALL, I know, but this all happened in the span of like 1/1000 of a second). I screamed from the bottom of my stomach- seriously- the muscles at the bottom of my abodomen were clenched, I screamed so hard.

So then, like a mile before the turn onto Happ*y Va*lley (the road that leads to my subdivision, Ri*ver For*est) there's a road called Ep*worth that provides a shortcut we always take when we're going to Little*ton. I know it can be a little hard to see if anyone's coming when you're turning right, which is why you have to come to a complete stop and look (which you should always do anyway. I am not saying I never pull a California Roll... but still.). So... I was cruising, belting out Michelle Branch's Everywhere along with the radio when I realized that a big ol' SUV was VEEEERRRRRRY slowly pulling out from Epw*orth, with a jet ski on a trailer in tow.

I had to SLAM my brakes. Not just hit them- SLAM them. Have you ever stopped so fast that everything crashed to the floor and you could feel your heart and lungs crash against your ribs? It was bad. The only time I have ever been that close to an accident I was able to swerve into the other lane. This time there was a car stopped in the other lane, waiting to turn left. I hit my horn for like 5 full seconds. Count to five, slowly. That's a long time.

Suffice it to say, I am grateful that today wasn't the Lord's timing to take me home. That didn't occur at first- at first I was extremely angry at the idiot driver (a woman, no less. And my friends say I drive like a guy- in a good way, with decent skills and confidence- so I feel licensed to talk smack.) who could have A) Cost me my life and B) Hurt my beloved Ac (Acura). Then I realized that the Lord didn't allow an accident to happen (or the snake to fly through my window) and anger would solve nothing. I've been reading about what it is to truly love the Father, and other people, in I John and even though I feel like the lady was driving like an idiot, I am certain she wasn't trying to be a tool. Even so, had I been in an accident and my world come crashing down, I can run to my Father, breathless, and He'll take me up in His arms. That's not what Better than Ezra meant, I can assume, when they wrote the song, but that's what it means to me and I can rest in that.

Ok, my adrenaline's still pumping (telling the roomies revved me up and my heart is STILL beating a little fast, twenty minutes later) but You and Me by Lifehouse just came on (way to be, iTunes) and it has an amazing effect on me. Even if it does quicken my heart to think of someone feeling that way about me someday :)

There's something about you now that I can't quite figure out...

EDIT: Here's a little PS aimed mainly at you, Grayden- the vehicle in this case was a light metallic blue (it was about a 2004 Ford Expedition. How many girls would know that? I am a rock star), so our white autos causing accidents theory is shot. Or at least doesn't apply here. But the jet ski and trailer were primarily white. So our theory holds in part.