In that moment when everything changes

I often think about the moments when life as you know it changes in an instant.  An accident, a medical exam, you lose a loved one suddenly: the unexpected happens, and suddenly, everything has changed.  On a global scale these types of life-changing moments seem to happen every few months, whether it's a natural disaster, or a gunman on the loose, a terrorist strike, or the Pope stepping down.  I know that these events are life-changing for the people closely affected and that they will always remember the moment when they heard the news. 

Maybe it's just that for me, last week was full of news of tragic and sudden deaths of young people, not close to me, but connected in some way.   Then news of a cousin through marriage losing his fight with cancer.  And seeing a friend struggle with a dark depression.  These stories are closer to home, they hit me in the heart and I can't help but feel as though life is so fragile, so very vulnerable.

None of these things compares with our only vehicle dying just as Dean left for the weekend, while I was supposed to be shipping off orders and then picking up the kids at school.  But it reminded me that things can change so fast.  The car was fine, and then, it all of a sudden, it wasn't.  It could have happened anywhere- on the bridge, with the kids, or worse, caused an accident.  It didn't take much for me to feel kind of helpless- in the moment I seemed to forget how to phone for a tow, or contact the mechanic to book the car in, or figure out how it could all happen in time for me to get back over the bridge to pick up my kids from school.  And then a friend stepped in, and walked me through it, looking up numbers on his phone.  Later when I was back home, another friend stopped by when I was home to make sure I had some groceries for the weekend as it would have been quite the walk up the hill with milk and groceries in the pouring rain with 2 kids in tow.  It all worked out and I'm so grateful.

We had a quiet weekend, the boys and I, sticking close to home, not leaving the house on Saturday due to horrid rain all day.  Sunday was lovely and bright, Dean got home, the car is still in the shop until late tomorrow, and my orders still aren't shipped but that's life.

**These photos were taken on the same day just outside my studio with my phone.  It was so strange to see a storm move through in a few short hours as the weather here doesn't often change that fast.