When A Brush With Death Comes With A Wake Up Call

Last week I was impatiently sitting at a red light. It was mid afternoon, I had just finished work and had to pick up some groceries before heading home.

As many of you may know, I despise grocery shopping so I was abit ruffled, ready to get it over with, ready to get home to an afternoon cup of tea. Other than that I had no pressure, no time constraints, no where else to be.

I was telling myself, I will just grab the groceries quick and then I can go home.

I was the first car at the intersection, sitting at a red light. I could just make out the opposite traffic light and was watching it go from green, to orange and then turn red, so I was ready to go. I pulled out when my traffic light turned green only to panic brake in the middle of the intersection as a car flew by perpendicular to me right through their red light. They missed me by a metre.

I just sat in the middle of the road gasping in shock. The car would was seconds, or just metres off going straight into my drivers door. I was so thankful I saw them out of the corner of my eye and quickly stopped, and even more thankful no one was behind me because they would have slammed right into me, forcing me forward into the cars path.

The car was flying, and I am sure they did not even realise. No sign of breaking or that they had done anything wrong. I slowly took off again with my heart beating so fast and hard and my mouth wide open.

So what do you do, when you have such a close call? When it could have been you knocking at the pearly gates?

For me, I went home and called my parents, got a big hug from my boyfriend, then I wrote about it, to process it more. It made me think of how lucky I was, how quick our lives can change but also the number of times I have ran a red light. It’s not many times, less than five but probably more than once. The times when you are desperate to get somewhere and nothing is going to stand in your way. Well that could of be me on the other side, running into someone innocently going through their green light.

I don’t know the reason that car was speeding through a red light, we never got to stop and chat. But there must be a reason we never touched, it obviously wasn’t meant to be my end.

The near death experience that day shook me up abit when I thought about how close I was to being involved in a really bad accident but it was also a good wake up call. To stop rushing, slow down, to be mindful, and thankful, to think of others, and a reminder that the road rules are there for a reason. Nothing is more important than my life. It was a good reset.

So let me lesson be my message - hug your loved ones tight and don’t go through red lights.

Have you had a close encounter with what could have been your end? We would love it if you shared your story and left a comment below.