Life - short, precious & unpredictable

M

Mal7

Dagobah Resident
Yesterday evening I was two cars back from a head-on motorway collision. A car had entered the exit lane of the motorway in the wrong direction, and then collided head on with a car travelling 100kmh in the other direction. Emergency services arrived after about 10 minutes, and it took another 30 minutes to remove one man from his vehicle using the “jaws-of-life”. There were no fatalities, but some serious injuries.

As a kind of emotional jolt or shaking-up, it seems like a reminder to me that life exists here and now in each present day. I don’t mean we should all be hedonists living totally in the present, but that even when planning for the future we should realize the present is kind of “where we live”, and it is important to be emotionally centered within it, and to keep a sense of what we really value most about life. We should keep an eye on the bigger picture, and on being the best person we can be.
 
Thanks for this post. It is always a timely reminder of the frailties of life, when we are witness to a traumatic incident like this. Two cars back from a head-on is a bit close for comfort :scared:

I hope you are OK Mal7, take care :hug2: :hug2:
 
Glad to hear you're ok Mal7 !

It's so easy to forget that life is as precious as it is fragile sometimes and those shocks really put everything back into perspective.
At the same time if we were living with this constant fear of dying, we could become paralyzed and never enjoy life either.
 
An interesting priest said once that on the way of life one should have 2 walls next to him: on the left the wall of death and on the right the wall of spirituality. There are 2 types of living life like it would be the last moment: one is to live it fully, to be present and apprieciate every moment(somehow a certain readiness to die), and one is making constant material excess, having the fear that one can die in every moment.

Life is indeed short, precious and unpredictable. And it is the very combination of these words that we forget so often.
 
Glad to hear you weren't involved in the accident, Mal7. I agree that it's a good approach to always keep in mind what we appreciate most in life (i.e. the AIM of the network, for me) and be the best person we can be.
 
Thank you all for those thoughts. :) It was a quite traumatic experience to go through even though I wasn't directly involved in the accident, and I think I'm still processing it a bit. Many people from the other side of the motorway stopped and ran over to try and help straight after the accident, which was nice. There was a photo in today's paper, that's my head just visible sticking up behind the silver car :_http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/305231/wrong-way-horror-crash-4-hurt

A Victim Support organization also left a message on my cellphone to see if I was alright, they are going to ring back tomorrow.
 
Thank you for posting this Mal7. You put it nicely, being emotionally centre in the present and being the best person we can be. It sounds like quite a jolt to have been so close to the collision.

Glad to hear you are okay :hug2:
 
I completely understand why it was quite a traumatic experience. Take good care of yourself and also take your time processing it.
 
Glad to hear that nothing happened to you and that no one died too! And keeping the bigger picture in mind is also very important since we easily forget ourselves too and too easily.
 
I'm glad that you were not hurt in this accident, it looked quite serious. Any crash is serious whether there is physical damage to oneself or others. As a forum member with the knowledge and awareness that you have, I hope that you will be able to learn something from this incident, even if it is to be more attentive or discerning. Perhaps your emotional jolt is what was needed to appreciate/re-appreciate your gains from this life. There may be other jolts to come to "complement" this incident, the possible resulting effect being accelerated learning? Hopefully those directly involved in the accident will be able to take stock of the before and after events of their lives and be able to "kick-on" too. Look how many people "flirt" with death before they can do anything. (and how many need to die as they aren't capable of progress at this time) It's amazing what things can spur people on for positive change and I hope that all involved directly/indirectly, will be able to see, feel and know the benefits if any. :)
 
I don't know why you needed it but it sure is an awful looking disaster and I'm glad you re here to remind us of the fragility of our every moment. It jolted me when I saw it and perhaps I needed it right at this moment. Thanks for letting us in on your life and all the other posts.
 
Mal7 said:
As a kind of emotional jolt or shaking-up, it seems like a reminder to me that life exists here and now in each present day. I don’t mean we should all be hedonists living totally in the present, but that even when planning for the future we should realize the present is kind of “where we live”, and it is important to be emotionally centered within it, and to keep a sense of what we really value most about life. We should keep an eye on the bigger picture, and on being the best person we can be.
Click to expand...

So true. I've just had a 20 year old relative pass away. Other events have also transpired to focus my attention on the losses, struggles and heartaches of people I know from close family to barely acquaintances as well as connected topics. The struggles of the forgotten underprivileged Native Americans I'm distantly related to, the Autists, ADD'ers and Spectrum family and friends and the whole mess of senseless deaths and misfortunes occurring to so many people all over the planet. My heart is aching and my mind is practically reeling in shock at the sheer finality and absurdness of the lot of it.

Here lately I'm mainly only speaking a language DCM can understand - tears.
 
My condolences to you Buddy for the loss of your relative. The world seems crazy at times, it's hard to make any sense of it. Stay strong and if you need to post about what you're going through, the forum is here to help you. :hug2:
 
Yes Buddy I can't recall exactly where I read it now, but your post reminded me of something I read in a Tibetan Buddhist book somewhere, where monks were being asked how many recitations and prostrations etc. they had been able to perform, and various monks were boasting about their accomplishments, while there was one monk, in some ways the most accomplished, who said he had done nothing but weep in his cave.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Trending content

Back
Top Bottom