Our Car Was Mid-Air And Then I Had An Epiphany
All our lives, we keep striving for a detached yet meditative state of mind and yet we fail. But some times, all it takes is being a shot-gun, mid-air to reach that highest point in life which changes you.
That day, we started for our destination at 3 am with a definite plan to reach home by 12 noon. With the sun, now warm and beaming in all its glory, I started typing into my cellphone. My conscious stream of rumbling thoughts became the following:
“When life throws you in emergencies, stay calm. It surely is going to be an amazing new experience.”
I smiled to myself after reading my musings and looked up to continue watching the early morning view. Suddenly, I noticed our car drifting towards the right and leaving the highway. I asked my husband what was going on and he replied calmly, “Nothing, all is fine”.
Within the next instant our car turned around as in action movies. Outside the window pane, I saw the glaring sun, the gravel on the road and I saw everything happening in slow motion like in movies. The car sprung up from the edge of the road, flew up in in the air then headed for the wall, straight on.
Cut to an inside car scene, I quickly secured my cell phone under my thighs, for we were surely going to need it soon. My eyes opened to the white smoke and burning smell from the gun powder all around and the deflated airbags. This is when I realize we were in the midst of a fatal car accident and I quickly secured my cellphone under my thighs, for we were surely going to need it soon.
After those few seconds of ‘air-time’, the car came down with a thud but I have already had my epiphany!
I turned towards my husband to ask what had happened and if he was okay. He didn’t look towards me, but repeated “All okay, all is well”, opening his seat belt. I looked back to check my pet baby, Cherub, who looked fine but eager to get out of the car. So all was fine, no injuries, what else could one ask for. I opened my seat belt and exited the car along with Cherub.
The bad and good people…
In no time onlookers had started clicking pictures and making videos of the accident site. That made me lose my patience and I shouted at them for their shameless behavior. With the now searing sun at 39* Celsius and a drunkard commenting, “Was your dog driving the car?”, I couldn’t help my over-reaction. Aargh!
“That madam is hurt”, I heard someone shout after which I looked down to find my foot smeared in blood. I pulled my jeans up to find a deep cut on the lower part of my leg. Okay, fine! The sight was ghastly with tissues visible and all bloody. Treating that cut with 8 stitches later in the hospital, was surely worse. In all gratitude, the people proved to be genuinely helpful. Especially one retired bank employee, who arranged everything from calling the local village doctor for first-aid to the crane which would lift our, now mangled car and eventually made it possible for us to home before twilight.
“Life is the weirdest thing that happens to anyone”
“Life is the weirdest thing that happens to anyone”, and I think that is, by far, the weirdest statement ever made by me. It teaches us new lessons in the most strangest of ways but also gives us an opportunity to test these lessons . Surely, life is a strange teacher.
While we were being towed towards home, I got some time to ponder over the past few hours. For the last few years, I had been trying really hard to practice detachment but every time I failed miserably. This is when I realized that this whole accident was a re-test. This day made me realize my latent strength and discover a new me.
During my stint at that ‘air time’, I realized that not only was I, not afraid of dying but there was this strange calm inside of me. The calm which is completely opposite to my normal jittery self.
Those decisive moments between life and death taught me some valuable lessons. Those moments was that special re-test which I had now passed with utmost peace and satisfaction. They were an offer to prove myself worthy of every thought that had crossed my mind till now, on how to live a live, unattached from every thing and every being. My bodily reflexes choose to safeguard a phone for future use and my brain chose to NOT think about death or life.
Self discovery from that epiphany
For a very long time now, a thought had been bothering my very sense of being, “In that critical moment of truth, did I fail as a mother and a daughter?” The only reply I could give myself was, “I might have failed in that role but as an individual, I felt uplifted and enlightened, in my relationship with self.” This self discovery, from that epiphany.
As the sun dimmed, making way for the rain to pour its heart out, I had emerged to be stronger than what I thought of myself to be. I had survived that day to now believe that a strong and an enlightened individual surely makes for a better parent. You need to be strong from the inside to take few decisions for the betterment of your children. Children naturally grow up to be independent but a parent needs extra effort to be detached enough to let the kids grow.
