Breeze

   Yesterday was Stake Conference. (For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a church service where all of the congregations in a specific area join together for 2 hours. It's good times.) We went and were spiritually fed.

   On the way back, we got stuck in some slow traffic on the highway. As we drove, we were wondering why in the world the traffic was so bad. Eventually, our slow and steady course brought us into sight of some flashing lights - someone got in a wreck.

   Hope it's not too bad. I thought to myself as I sat in the back seat with my arm out the window, feeling the breeze flow across my skin. Details surfaced as we drew nearer. What was one set of lights turned into two. And then three. And then four. And then five. And then more. I don't remember how many, honestly.

   My dad told me once, "If you see an ambulance, someone is having a worse day than you, so cheer up." How true. How. True. Whoever this man or woman was, he or she was having a worse day than me. 

  The drive continued, and I began doing what most of us do as we get close to a wreck - you start sitting up straighter and watching for any and every bit of information you can. You want the juicy stuff. After all, this could make a great story later, right? Right. Soon, though, what my eyes didn't see was a flipped over, destroyed, flaming wreck of what was once a nice Volkswagen Jetta. What my eyes did see, however, was an airplane crashed on the side of the road. It was a small, single prop plane, nothing huge.

   From my limited knowledge, this is what I think personally happened: the pilot was cruising along on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, enjoying the beautiful Napa Valley skies. Suddenly, something went wrong. The pilot tried to do everything possible to recover, but it soon became apparent that a crash landing would need to be necessary (Would need to be necessary... that's terrible grammar. My AP English teacher would probably throw a copy of The Great Gatsby at my head for that). 

   After a rapid surveillance or perhaps a radio call to the airport, or probably both, the highway was chosen for a spot to land as it's rather similar to a runway and flat compared to the grape-laden hills. As the plane's shadow grew larger on the highway, the cars must have slowed down or moved to the side. However, not all went well and the plane still crashed. I'm sure help was already on the way even before bystanders began phoning in. Ambulances, fire engines, police, and more were responding with great haste.

    Back to the situation at hand: I saw one gurney with a body on it, so someone was hurt. I couldn't see much more, but I knew that that person was hurt. There were other civilians standing around talking to emergency responders, so maybe there were even more hurt than I could see.

   And that brings you up to speed on where I was - sitting in the driver-side rear seat, feeling the breeze across my arm.

   I began to think how precious life is. It's short. We're fragile. We're susceptible to so many different diseases and illnesses. We break. We're just... mortal.

   I'm glad that we won't always been this way. I'm happy that one day, the Resurrection will happen and mortality will be... over. 

   We drove passed the crash. I arched my neck around so that I could watch the airplane and firefighters or as long as I could. Finally, when I couldn't see it anymore, I sat back down normally, but this time much more somberly, with a lot more to think about.

   

   For some reason, the breeze flowing over my arm felt much better and had much more meaning to it.