At-TEN-tion!

The great, and admittedly sometimes annoying, thing about writing is that once you start one thing, loads of ideas come forth. And so this is one of many entries that I plan to work on today, or at least for the next half hour or so.
But as for the title, this is something I need to pay more of. To give you an idea of why I say this, let me start off with some recent current events in my life. As many of you know, last week I was involved in a car accident—of one. And inevitably, when I tell people this, the first question that they ask is naturally, “What happened?” The long and short of the answer is that as I crossed an intersection, I bumped a curb and could not un-bump it. This resulted in my first hitting a speed limit/snow emergency route sign, followed closely be a utility pole. Though the entire experience was terrifying, the worst part of it was the panic that I might have caused injury to my son. This fear caused me to leap out of the vehicle, sans shoes (they had flown off upon impact with the pole) and run frantically out to get him. The electrical systems in the car had shut down so I could automatically open the door and had to reach across the seat to get to him. With God’s mercy (I say this now instead of luckily), there were an abundant amount people (they are euphemistically called good Samaritans thanks to the Bible) who came to my aid and helped me/stayed with me while the paramedics, police, and fire engines were dispatched. Can I remember any of their names/faces? No, but I am so thankful that they were there.
I’m using this blog as a catharsis to make full confession of the fact that I was not at full attention that day. Don’t get me wrong; I was not physically doing any activity that took my attention from the road: I wasn’t texting or talking on the cell; I wasn’t putting on makeup or drinking a beverage; I wasn’t fiddling with the radio or any of those other things that are commonly done behind the wheel. I even had both hands on the wheel and was listening to the Yolanda Adams show as I do every morning. And if you were to ask me, I was paying attention to the road.
Here’s where I went wrong: I was occupied with my thoughts. That morning, I was thinking about the next day when I would go visit my mother, and I was thinking about how much it would cost me. So in a sense I was there, but I wasn’t there. One of the things that I have constantly been lecturing myself and others about is being PRESENT. There’s a clichéd saying: the past is history; the future’s a mystery…the present is a gift. That means when you’re driving a car, you should be driving the car, and paying attention to the road and how many cars are in front of you or behind you; in what proximity these cars are; or in my case, how close you are to a curb. And then I took this meaning beyond the car accident and the revelation of WHY I was in the car accident dawned upon me. When we travel long distances or to unfamiliar places or when we use someone else’s car, we tend to be more cautious because we’re conscious that we not as familiar with that road or that vehicle. But statistically, people get in more accidents closer to home; I am living proof of that as I have been in three vehicle collisions close to home, two of which were less than a mile from where I lived. And when we have someone else’s stuff, we ought to take care of it like it’s our own stuff, and vice versa. We should be taking care of “our” stuff like it doesn’t belong to us. The rental car that I have been provided is spotless; nothing is left in there because I know I have to clean it out and return it in good condition. Yet when I had to clear my vehicle at the scene of the accident, there was enough stuff to put into four garbage bags, and most of the stuff was trash or papers that could have just as easily been thrown away.
I say all this to say that it is with the familiar that we tend not to be as vigilant, and my advice today is that we should be ever vigilant even with the familiar, especially since we are guaranteed none of it. Everything is temporary, and even above that, all this temporary stuff is not ours to begin with. So my morning prayer today had to include an apology to God for not taking care of His stuff.
So pay attention gentle readers.