Welp. I'm here now.

Today's guest post is from someone long-time readers will remember as Bread Truck Grrl.*

In general, I'm not big on moving in straight lines (or doing anything straight for that matter, but that's another story). I get side-tracked easily, wander off down windy roads just to see where they lead, head out without a clue where I'm going or forget along the way what my destination was supposed to be. I like to think that makes me delightfully spontaneous and open to enjoying the journey, rather than just focusing on the end goal. Sometimes it actually just means I have no clear goals, so I set out hoping to stumble on something good to claim as my end goal later.

I was moving in a totally straight line one day last March, though. I had a destination in mind. I knew how to get there. I knew why I was going there. Then, quite unexpectedly, I was cut off and found myself somersaulting over the handlebars of my motorcycle. As these things tend to do, it all happened very fast and also in extremely slow motion at the same time.

I landed on my back in front of the car that had pulled out in front of me, and I remember very clearly thinking to myself "Welp. I'm here now. This is not quite where I planned on being right about now, but here I am." I took a mental inventory of all my parts: Legs? Check. Arms? Check. Breathing? Check. Brain? Check. "Well, self, let's stand up and see what's going on."

For the worriers out there, I was not going all that fast and did hit the brakes. Also, I wear a LOT of protective gear when I ride. I was mostly unscathed, aside from aggravating an old wrist injury. My bike fared less well, but overall the situation was not nearly as bad as it could have been.

So, I guess I should say now "I'm grateful to be alive!" and of course I am, but that's not what I'm getting at here. This may be a strange way to get to this point, but what I remember most vividly about that accident was realizing that I was not going to get where I had planned on going and that I might as well just take a look at where I was instead and go from there. I'm grateful for the moments in life that snap you out of autopilot and make you look around, inventory what you've got going for you, appreciate those things and head off in a new direction with a fresh perspective.

Those moments are not always potentially life-threatening. Maybe it's meeting someone new and amazing right when you were about to give up on love and take a vow of celibacy. Maybe you found out you're pregnant. A new job. An eye-opening conversation. The wisdom of a child. Anything that stops you in your tracks and makes you reevaluate everything you're doing. I'm grateful for those moments and for the grace to (usually) take them in stride and use them as chances to learn and grow and truly appreciate the things I have.

*If you click that link, you'll get to every post in which I refer to Bread Truck Grrl as BTG. But I can't not also connect BTG to this post, though, because it gave BTG so much joy to write. Mean, mean joy at my expense.  —bzzzzgrrrl