The roads were wet, shimmering in the streetlights.
Deceptively pretty.
I was coming up to a stoplight on a bridge, heading home from running a few errands.
I gently pressed my brakes, ready to slow down well ahead of the light and the car in front of me.
Nothing happened.
I felt the tires sliding. My speed didn't slow. Not even a little bit.
I gently pulsed the brakes. Still nothing.
Still sliding, rapidly coming closer and closer to that car ahead of me. The driver, blissfully unaware of what was happening behind him.
I looked around, trying to see if there was a place I could swerve into to avoid the crash.
There was nowhere to go. Only a bridge railing on either side.
Just when I thought plowing straight into that car was inevitable, I felt the brakes catch.
The car slowed and came to a stop, with only a few feet to spare.
It was terrifying.
There was black ice on that bridge.
Disguised as a shiny, wet road in the moonlight.
My heart pounded in my chest all the way home that night. Thinking about how that scene could have played out.
My eyes filled with tears of gratitude.
That wasn't my first experience with black ice. And I'm sure it won't be my last.
As we go through life, there are figurative patches of black ice too.
Slippery patches that cause us to veer off our path, or crash into obstacles that we think we're keeping at a safe distance.
We often can't see them until we are right on top of them.
Until we start to slide. Until our brakes don't catch.
It's a scary feeling, being out of control like that.
But it's also part of life.
We need to be out of control sometimes to keep things in perspective.
To appreciate the moments when the road is clear, when we aren't sliding, when life is calm and peaceful.
I'm so grateful I didn't crash into that car a few nights ago.
But I also know that next time the scene might play out differently.
Black ice is a dangerous thing.
So is living life and never stopping to be grateful for it.
Drive carefully!
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