They recently opened a "multi-use trail" in my neighborhood. It is a cross between a sidewalk, bike path and horse trail and it has made my early morning walks far more enjoyable than my former treks up and down the local streets. However, as the trail is new, drivers are not used to it and as I learned this morning, the crosswalks can be dangerous.
Walking briskly, listening to Accident Hash on my Palm Pre, and scrolling through Twitter messages (yeah, the Pre multitasks, as do I), I saw the truck in the left turn lane in my peripheral vision and assumed he saw me. Head down, I continued across the street. Next thing I know there are bright headlights, a loud screech, a blasting horn and a shiny chrome bumper six inches from my hip. I could feel the heat off the grill of the truck.
After a few moments of heated screaming between the driver and myself inanely disputing who should have seen whom, both of us feeling guilty, both of us at fault, I turned back to my business and continued on my walk as if nothing had happened...
But something had happened. As we are so often miraculously able to do, I had avoided, by a breath, what could have been a life changing serious injury, or even death. And then I continued on with my routine as if nothing in my life had changed. And, fortunately, nothing had. We are resilient beings, us humans...
In this hectic, crazy, stress-filled, happy life we lead, we are always near death. Any given moment can be our last. Live life accordingly.