Human Lives
If a cat has 9 lives, how many do we as humans have?
I don't know about you, but I have been in a few situations where if just one thing had changed, I wouldn't be here and it makes you think about the "what ifs".
I'm better than I used to be with overthinking these, now I just remind myself that it didn't happen, everything is fine. I had one happen yesterday and it got me thinking.
Let me give you a few examples, some are mine, others are relative's stories, but you will get the idea.
When I was younger, I was in a friend's swimming pool and they were piggy backing their sister swimming. They had another sister and even though I had never piggy backed while swimming before, I decided to give it a go..... and nearly drowned in the process. Luckily it wasn't a big pool and the oldest sister got to me quite quickly.
I went for a walk in the bush alone once (with a dog) and got horribly lost, had fallen over a couple of times and it was getting dark. I was more worried about the owner of the dog being angry with me than I was about my own safety. I retraced my steps and found my way back to the car.
A few years ago, I took my son (about 6 at the time) geocaching (google it so I don't have to explain what it is if you don't know 😉 ) and the cache was right next to a railway line.
The clue for it indicated there was another way in, but we went down the road and the only gate we could see went to a private residence, so I thought we must have to access it via the train tracks. Yes, I should have known better, I should have remembered that it is illegal to be near train tracks, but I didn't.
So we drive around the other way to where it roughly is and there is an open gate leading onto the train tracks. So in we go, cross the train tracks (2 lots) but there is a massive drop to get down to where the cache was and no way to get there, so we decide that it's obviously not the way. Just as we were about to go, we hear the freight train coming, so we backed away from the tracks as far as we could and waited for it to pass (on the tracks closest to us). The driver even leaned out the window to wave to us. It was fairly long so we had to wait quite a while. When we could see the last carriage, we decide to cross back over to the car. Ryan was having trouble getting up the rocks to cross the first track so I stopped to help him up. Right then, a passenger train came around the corner at 110km/h + on the second track. If I hadn't stopped to help Ryan, and he was able to get up when I did, we would have been crossing that track...
Before my time, (or as I say, before I was alive) my oldest brother locked himself in an old fridge that locks from the outside. Mum had been looking for him and just thought she might open it to check if he was there... thank goodness she did.
Although, he then went on to hit my sister in the head with a shovel and ran into here with his bike when they were little so they are both lucky to be alive!
There is another story involving my son and another boy that I am not quite ready to talk about yet, but one day I will.
So, yesterday, I was driving down a freeway at 110km/h and the sun was shining from behind me straight into my rearview mirror and then into my eyes so that it blinded me. I adjusted the mirror so that it wasn't in my eyes anymore, and I had also just overtaken a car so I looked back to make sure I could get back in the left lane. I still don't know how this happened but when I looked back at the road all I saw was a red hatchback in front of me less than (what seemed like) 2 metres away STOPPED, I somehow managed to swerve into the right lane, and slow down - I still don't know how.
The traffic was backed right up due to a lane being closed about 1km or so down the road. It was backed up further than any signs indicating roadworks ahead. There is no doubt in my mind that if I had hit that car, I wouldn't be here today, and I would have injured them and god knows how many others in the traffic ahead.
I feel so very lucky to have avoided that and I'm trying not to dwell on it, but it really did just get me thinking about how many lives we have, how many chances do we get before the universe just goes, nope, that's enough for you.
Lets finish on a brighter note - this is my latest artwork and it has been purchased by a lovely supporter of hand made. It is all about the "black sheep of the family" not being a bad thing and that they are just as beautiful. It was originally just going to be the sheep framed but I got a mark on it. So I cut it out and went to see how I could save her in my craft room and this is the result - I'm over the moon she turned out so well and even happier that she had a new home.
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