Blessed!
Last night, on my way home from my friend's house after our weekly get together, I had a car accident. I am fine, though a little shaken and subsequently short on sleep, and apart from a damaged front wheel the car is fine too!

I got caught on a newly opened bit of the highway that runs near the turn-off to home. For the last twelve months we have used it to get home from my friend's house, so as to avoid an annoying trip around the houses. Only I didn't know that the new bit of highway had been opened on Sunday, which meant that when I made the usual left hand turn I was not heading in the direction I expected. It meant that I ended up going almost halfway back to where I started from before I could turn around safely and try getting home again!

So there I am, nice new bit of tarmac tempting me to test the speed limit, when something fell in front of the car! There was no way to avoid the obstacle I had to drive over it, and at speed too.

Now here's the odd bit. Less than half an hour earlier my friend had complemented me on my driving skills - all of a sudden I am confronted with the need for them, and I reacted as a "good driver" should.

As a result I've only sustained a mild whiplash headache but I'm otherwise undamaged. As I said the car's front nearside wheel was slashed and the wheel itself is buckled, but that's it!
I feel as if I have been "sheltered from the blast" (to quote an old hymn) and knowing that an accident like that can have a very different outcome, the sky has seemed more blue, my family more lovable, smells and textures more intense. Cliché though it might be, I feel I have been given another opportunity to appreciate life from yet another angle.

I am very blessed!