In the summer of 2020 I crashed my car. It wasn’t serious. Minor damage. I wasn’t paying attention and I ran into the car in front of me. It was the summer of 2020 and I was going through some shit. Drinking heavily to fight off my panic attacks. Sunbathing in my backyard while listening to podcasts about the Roman Empire. I was a mess. Social distancing was in full effect and the entire future of the world and humanity seemed to be in question. So when I hit this lady in front of me it really did feel like a culmination of the entire world crashing into me, threatening to break my fragile psyche.
Boom. Impact. I stepped out of the car to assess the damage. A middle aged lady with kind eyes stepped out of her car and appeared to be just as shell shocked as I felt. She told me this was the second time today someone had hit her car, and when she said that for some inexplicable reason I just burst into tears. Not light tears. Deep tears. Deep emotional sobs. I became completely unraveled in that moment and when I started crying this lady started crying too and we just held each other on the side of the road and cried. After about five minutes of us just holding each other and crying she looked me in the eyes and told me I have a kind heart. Then she got in her car and drove away.
I never got her name. I have no idea who she is. But that was honestly one of the most emotionally cathartic experiences I’ve ever had in my life. I still think about this lady all the time. It was such a raw expression of humanity. Two complete strangers. Holding each other and weeping for the state of the world. It was incredible. I don’t know what it means, but sometimes God will just throw people into your life in the strangest ways. I don’t know if I needed that, or she needed that, or what the purpose behind it was but at this point in my life I’ve learned to trust the path, however strange it may be.