Originally Posted September 7th, 2011:
This past Labor Day weekend we traveled to Gulf Shores, AL for a little beach weekend getaway. It would’ve went all well and good except for one little thing…. Tropical Storm Lee! It pretty much down-poured the entire trip. At least my family lives close to there, so we got to spend time with them. I’m not writing to complain about my vacation though, I am writing to talk about what happened on the way back to Memphis.
While driving back to Memphis, somewhere between Mobile and Meridian, MS one of the scariest moments of my life happened. It was raining, not crazy hard, but pretty heavily. We were in the right hand land, just cruising along, listening to Malcolm Gladwell read his book Blink, when we came up on a car in front of us going about 30 mph. We were actually going about 15 under the speed limit, but 30 was just too slow. I turned my blinker on, and changed lanes to pass the car. As soon as I got in front of the car, I hit a wet patch of road or something and all of a sudden I lost traction on the road. We went into a slide, and then starting spinning out of control doing two full 360’s in the middle of the highway and then careening into the ditch in the median of the highway.
It all happened in what seemed like slow motion. We started to slide and I held on tight to the wheel. Instinct kind of took over. I remember thinking that we could possibly die. Myself, my wife, my two babies a 15 month old and 1 month old, all of us or any combination of us could’ve not walked away from what happened. When we slid to a stop, I immediately asked if Shannon was ok, followed by a look into the back seat to see if the children were ok. My son didn’t even wake up, and my daughter just smiled like she always does. We were all unscathed. There is more to the story about how we got out, but I will save that for part 2.
What I want to talk about now, is what I’ve been thinking about since the incident. I think what happened to us can be a powerful metaphor for life in general. Sometimes, life sends you spinning out of control and head first into a ditch. It’s just the unfortunate truth. People die, people get divorced, people get sick, people get into financial trouble, the list goes on and on and on. The truth is, that when those things happen it freaking sucks, and sometimes you feel like you can’t keep going. The key to handling the situation is to know that you can keep going. Even if something bad is happening in your life, even if you careen into a ditch, you can pick yourself back up and keep going. If you focus on that, you will be ok. Even if things are hard, it’s not time to give up yet. Many times it’s important to take a look at your life and thank God or whoever/ whatever you believe in that you have the ability to keep on going. Sometimes life gets hard to make you appreciate the wonderful things that you do have.
I am so thankful that my family and I came out unscathed and it has made me appreciate everything so much more. Have you ever gone spinning out of control in life? If so, we’d love to hear how you handled it. Feel free to post comments below!
WOD 1-7-14
Strength:
Push Press
110% of OHP
8 x 3
Met Con:
2 K row as fast as possible (try to set a PR)
Then rest 2 minutes
then complete
Walking lunges x 50 (each leg no weight)
Toes to bar/ Knees to Elbows x 30
For time
