I do quite a bit of driving now. David lives about 45 minutes from my house and my work is about 45 minutes from my house the other way. Most of my friends, my sister, and my parents are also about half an hour away. So I spend quite a bit of time on the road. I don’t mind; it’s “me” time. However, spending so much time driving I also very often end up in traffic, many times, due to an accident. I also don’t mind. And you shouldn’t either.  

Very often I’ll hear on the radio or talk to people after getting to where I was going complaining about the traffic on the highway or road due to an accident. They talk about how it made them late, complaining about when the road will be clear for them to drive on it or how it was so inconvenient to them to have to go another way. But was it really? Were you in the accident? Are you physically or mentally hurt? Are you going to be emotionally scarred from it for your life or for any period of time, for that matter? Is it going to cost you financially? Did your life change in any way? Most likely the answer is no. Most likely you will go about your day, maybe 30 minutes late, and you will forget about the traffic that was “so aggravating” an hour later, by the end of the day at most. Meanwhile, someone else’s life might have just significantly changed.  It really had nothing to do with you at all.

Every time I am sitting in traffic that I know was caused by an accident I think about how, this time, I am fortunate. There’s a part of me that feels guilty that I’m glad it’s not me this time while someone else might be in distress or pain. I always hope that they are okay but I know I am lucky it is not me or my family members this time. I am on the easy side, slowly moving to my destination that I will get to, while someone else may have just had their world turned upside down. Someone else might be hurt. Someone else might be on their way to the hospital. Someone else’s family might be getting a phone call or a visit about it. Someone else might have died or be fighting for their life. But you are the one complaining about the inconvenience of the accident as you simply sit in your cozy vehicle waiting to move? It seems so illogical. So this long weekend, as you’re sitting in traffic, possibly due to an accident, cursing and getting frustrated please take a second to stop and think about how lucky you really are to be the one that gets to continue your drive unscathed…however slowly that might be.