“Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for us to see.”
―C.S Lewis

I got hit by a semi-truck last Wednesday, and wasn’t hurt.

At 12:30pm, as I was driving onto the I-205 S on-ramp, listening to “Paint it Black” by the Rolling Stones, a semi-truck ran into the right rear door of my Honda Civic. Without understanding what had happened I steered my car onto a traffic island that I didn’t see (which also had a wheelchair access ramp that made it easy for my car to roll up on), and safely got out of the way of the hundreds of cars that use that particular intersection.

As I sat in the moments after the collision, it occurred to me that I should probably do something. I was trying to think what, since I’d never been in a major accident before and wasn’t certain of the protocol. A man knocked on my window then, checked that I didn’t have a concussion, and instructed me to stay still without moving my head. I felt this was doable and agreed to follow his instructions.

I later found out the man who checked on me was a former EMT, and used to work for the military as a traffic accident investigator. He was also a truck driver, who was that day training a new hire who was riding with him. Their conversation at that moment was specifically about auto accidents, when they watched a semi in the lane next to them run through a red light and hit me. In that moment he turned to his trainee and said, “See? It can happen that fast.”

There was also a cop near the scene when the accident happened. The officer took testimonies from the witnesses and the driver who hit me, while I sat in the car doing an inventory that I was actually okay and not just in shock. Ultimately I believed I was fine, and when they offered to call an ambulance for me I refused.

It turned out I was less than 10 minutes away from a friend’s house, who was home in the middle of a weekday and available to give me a ride wherever I needed. The officer called a tow truck for me that arrived around the same time my friend did, and we all agreed that my car had seen its last mile.

Later that day I went to an urgent care facility that was close to my house. The doctor declared I had strained my inter-costal muscles and it would be fine in a couple of days. Everyone told me I’d feel like I’d been hit by a truck the next day, but when Thursday arrived I woke up early feeling great.

It’s possible injuries may reveal themselves later, but as of now almost all soreness has faded and in my heart I know I’m fine.

Being hit by a semi-truck without being injured is really enough for me, but the list of miracles beyond that is so extensive it’s impossible to name them all. The lesson feels bigger than I can frame in words, but I’d like to try.

The sense experience of Wednesday was itself Miracle. Not that miracles happened, but that miracles are the foundation of life. Events occurring beyond rational explanation, with a purposefulness that doesn’t explain but rather is inherent to their chaotic nature. Like ocean waves in a storm, blown by a wind that no one can see or fathom, but everyone feels.

I’d missed an exit driving home, and ended up in Washington state having to turn around. I’d gone out of my way to be at that particular intersection at that particular time, and the tangible sense of rightness about it all is difficult to describe. It’s not about the events, but the energy within and around them, which I realized is a constant of life itself.

I won’t say everything happens for a reason. I’ll say everything is a miracle, and sometimes something dramatic enough happens that the veil is lifted, and we can see just how much so.

I’m happy to add I’m still seeing clients, leading events this month, and proceeding more or less uninterrupted with my life. My capacity for gratitude is expanding, as I discovered there are some things you just can’t be thankful enough for.  But I’ll try.