I don't know what to pray, but I need to.

I was in a car accident on the freeway yesterday. I’m skittish about sharing the details online; suffice it to say that all parties are physically fine. What happened was the lesser of two potentially very bad things.

This could have been so much worse. It’s only by grace, that it wasn’t. That is precisely why I’m shaken.

(And even though I know that, it also gives me pause. What do you say, when an accident results in catastrophe?)

Thank you, Paul, for praying for me offline, and to the Apostle in Exile for caring for me. We are all, physically, fine—and that makes me want to collapse on my knees. The tension in my body will dissipate. The flashbacks as I’m going to sleep, will stop. I will feel solid again. My car door sounds different, but still does what it’s supposed to do. The other car has only a significant scratch. The other people were so damn nice about it, as was the CHP officer who was already there.

This could have been so much worse. I’ve known people, for whom it was worse. My college roommate was killed nineteen years ago yesterday, when the car she was a passenger in slipped on black ice, on a twisty highway near Forks, WA. I still carry her family in my heart; she was from Olympia, and for a long time I was very involved in the spiritual community she'd grown up in. I have another friend who survived a freeway accident, but was paralyzed. They didn’t deserve that, any more than I deserve this.

We are all fine. I don’t know what to pray, but “Thank you—and surround everybody with the grace you give me.”