I was driving in the middle lane of 4 lanes on the freeway headed toward home last Thursday morning. I was taking full advantage of the 80 MPH speed limit. Suddenly something sounded different. Was it that the road had changed pavement? Was it my car? The sound started to get higher and higher in pitch, at which time I decided it was my car. I looked for where I could pull over. The edge on both sides of the freeway was very narrow. I noticed there was an off-ramp coming up and began to move into the slow lane to get off. As I did so, a car honked loudly at me! It had been in my blind spot, and in my somewhat frantic desire to get off I had not looked back to see if someone was there. I swerved back into my own lane, narrowly missing hitting him. As I swerved back I noticed my car was not handling right, which prompted me to get off as quickly as possible. I took the off ramp and stopped as quickly as I could. I got out and looked at my tires. Both tires on the drivers side were fine. The front one on the passenger side was fine, but when I looked at the back tire on the passenger side I was shocked. It was literally melted! There were huge holes where I could see all the way through to the other side. Part of the tire closest to the ground had disintegrated into a powder that was spilling out onto the pavement. The tire was too hot to touch. Suddenly I realized that I had forgotten my cell phone and could not call someone to come help or rescue me. Before I could even think about what to do next a big white incident management truck pulled up behind me and a man named Rob got out. I was stunned. Someone had pulled up to help me, and so quickly! I showed him the tire. He asked it I had a spare, a thought that had not yet even occurred to me. I opened the trunk and found the spare. It was flat. Rob said he had air on his truck and would pump it up and see if it would hold. It did. He got out his power jack and his power drill and jacked up my car, popped off the hub cap, and changed that tire in about 2 minutes flat! The tire held its air. (I would not like to admit that I didn't even know I had a hub cap on and probably would have tried to take the lug nuts off of it, that is IF I could have figured out how to use the jack) I was back on the road within 10 minutes of his coming to my rescue. Amazing! I thanked him profusely and was on my way.
As I drove home on my spare tire I was thinking about this incident. On the one hand, I had had a flat tire, nearly gotten in an accident, had a spare that was flat, and had to buy a new tire when I got home (that ended up costing $100 I was not planning on spending). I had also missed an important appointment and had no way to contact them to let them know I was not coming.
On the other hand, my car had handled well enough to get me off of the freeway. I was NOT in an accident. Someone stopped to help me immediately. That person happened to have air to pump up my flat tire right on his truck. (what are the chances?) The spare held the air. I did not have to change the tire myself. Miraculously the rim was not damaged. I was back on the road quickly. Amazing!
2 sides of the same coin.......the coin being the experience and the sides the perspectives. I finally got it.
3 days later I had another experience. I came home from a meeting last Sunday to find water pouring onto my kitchen floor from the cupboard underneath the sink. I yelled for my husband who was upstairs. He went down to the basement to turn the water off, and discovered it was "raining" down there. Together with our children we spent the next 2 1/2 hours mopping up water and drying things out. Some of our possessions had been damaged, including journals and photo albums. What a day! We called the insurance company as soon as they opened for the week. An adjuster came out and said that the floor would need to be replaced, and to do that right, the cabinets would also have to come out. I remembered that there are 2 sides of the coin.
On the one side, this is a huge project that has a $1,000 deductible at an inopportune time. (is there an opportune time for such a price?). We have 2 trips scheduled this year that are expensive, something we never do, so it is even more inopportune! We had hoped to spend that much money on new rings for our 30th wedding anniversary this summer. We have damaged personal belongings, and it is a terrible amount of work to tear everything out, dry everything out, and account for all the damage.
On the other side, our linoleum floor was 25 years old and in embarrassingly bad shape. It was pulling away from the walls, and the seam down the middle had widened to show the sub-floor underneath. It looked terrible. It will be wonderful to replace it with a new floor, especially since the insurance company is going to pay more than half. It is like getting a half-price new floor. The cabinets are 1980's oak. My husband has had all the materials and has been saving them to build new cabinets "someday". Guess what, someday is now! On top of that, 14 generous people showed up to help us rip out everything yesterday, and the entire kitchen floor, cabinets and a wall were removed in a 4-hour period. A generous friend lent us a big trailer to put all the construction debris in and then hauled it away for us! To top it off, our daughter works for a construction company and can get a deal on the flooring so we can have a little to put into whatever else needs it. And the personal items that were damaged? They are not damaged beyond repair, and I realized that the old pictures have not been digitized and could not have been replaced. Now I will digitize them so they will be preserved no matter what happens; perspective I did not have before.
Being new to this understanding, I realize that sometimes it can be very difficult to see the positive side of the coin. I have a friend whose husband told her this week that he does not love her anymore and wants to leave. I have another friend that is facing possible jail time. Such situations make it very difficult to see the bright side of the coin. I believe that though very bad things may happen, if we continue to look at the positive side of the coin, we will always have a better time in this life than looking at the negative side. No matter what is going on, no matter what has happened, there are always 2 ways to look at a situation.
Choosing to look at the positive side of the coins in my week has certainly helped me feel grateful and happy instead of negative and miserable. May you find the happy side of the coins in your life as well.
Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow!!! Great insights. Thank you for the reminder to remember to be grateful - it makes all the difference :)
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