Black Ice

I've had an interesting start to my new year.  It all started last weekend, when I had a case of blues, part holidays ending, part ear infection beginning.  You see, I always know when those nasty things are lurking, and it all starts with waking up in the middle of the night and feeling little pings of pain.  They are always small to start; it's always an early warning system.  I usually ignore it in hopes that it will go away, but it never does. 

Monday night, I didn't sleep because I was in too much pain.  So, Tuesday, I forced myself to go to the doctor's office, where I was diagnosed with an ear infection.  I went and got medication and spent the day sleeping on the couch.  J's dad brought her home late and C. brought me soup and a Coke with lots of ice.

Wednesday morning, I knew I could make it through a day at work, so I got up, got dressed,and started driving Jaeme to school  The forecast was temps in the low 40's, and the roads appeared clear.  There did not appear to be a large patch of black ice in the turning lane by my daughter's school.  There was.  My car was fighting the slide, and my steering wheel was jerking from left to right...I didn't know if we would ever stop, or if I get crashed in the middle of the intersection.  I stopped right before the light.

I later found out that there were patches of black ice all over the city.  There were at least two wrecks (a bus and a van; an "Avalanche" (a good snow car) and another vehicle) on the corner of the street where I work.  And I was thinking that black ice is just like that.  No matter how cautious you drive or how careful you are, when you hit a patch of it, there's a good chance you're going to slide.  All you can hope for is the best.

I felt like I've hit more than one patch of black ice this week.  Getting sick during the time when I was supposed to be back in full force at work.  Hitting literal black ice on the way to work this morning when I really wasn't feeling all that great.  Dozens of e-mails piled up in my inbox at work.

I'm thinking that life is a lot like black ice.  It can catch you unaware and send you into a slide.  And sometimes all you can do is hold on and hope for the best and hope there are people who care about you on the other side.

Love,
Rachel

Your Turn: I am realizing that my life is a series of notes.  Everything that happens to me is like a lecture that I'm attending, but I'm not using a pen and a spiral notebook to record the details.  Everything that happens to me is recorded at a physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual level.  And it's all notes that I can write from.  Your life is like that, too.  It's part of living a writer's life.