I had just finished facilitating a workshop, had lunch with a friend, and was driving back home on the freeway when a flying object appeared in front of me heading directly for my car. It was dark against the backdrop of the blue sky and looked like a large piece of metal.
Whatever it was, it seemed to be flying in slow motion, almost surrealistic, until it came crashing head on into the front of my car. I also heard loud noises in the back of my car followed by a scraping sound. I decided to continue driving home because the car seemed drivable.
When I got back to where I live, I parked the car to begin assessing the damage. I started with the front, which had a fair amount of damage and then walked around to the back. 
What I saw was shocking. The scraping sound I heard was part of a five-and-a-half-foot spear-like piece of metal that had been dragging behind my car, which explained the scraping sound I heard when I was driving. The other part was impaled in my car like someone had thrown a giant spear into it. I was flooded with gratitude and the wonder of being alive.
No this wasn’t an epiphany that would cause me to change my entire life. It was much quieter than that. It was an awakening to deepen the things I value the most, which are my relationships and service to others. I won’t try to seek answers to why things happen, both good and bad. I will just try to live with them.
As I was writing this article, the lyrics to a Bob Dylan song floated unbidden into my head:
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
If there is meaning in my blowin’ in the wind experience whose trajectory was my car, it is this: love this life without requiring answers. Redemption doesn’t make a crisis worthwhile, but it makes it worth something. I made some phone calls to the people who have been on my “to do” list for months and told them just how much I love them.
Reflection: Are there things on your real or imagined “to do list” that you have been putting off?
Today’s Practice: Take one of those things on that list and do it.