Life is Precious

byChristineDu1

1.9K followers

4 years ago

Last night I had an experience, perhaps it could be called a life-changing experience. It certainly changed much of my thinking and certain perspectives ... It was scary, eye-opening, it made me pensive this morning, it made me appreciate the fact that I have life ...

I had a great evening yesterday, I was teaching German in my evening class, felt full of energy, and after class I drove home. I live in a trailer on my land. There is a construction of my house, but it is paused right now, and in the meantime, until my house is built, I am living in my trailer. There is no electricity, so I use candles at night.

Well, last night something happened ... When I came home and walked into my trailer, something smelt like it was burning. I didn't think much of it. Sometimes neighbors burn wood or trash (there is no garbage collecting service here - I live in the middle of nowhere). I lit some candles to have some light, and I checked my phone to see if I could comment on some websites here on WA.

Very soon, my eyes started getting watery and extremely irritated. I could no longer continue staring at the screen. I planned to watch Grace and Frankie on Netflix when I was in bed, but my eyes were so irritated that I decided just to go to sleep. I figured that I was really tired, I am often gone from home for 12 hours a day ...

So, I went to bed. That's when I noticed the flames ...

A cupboard in my trailer was burning! And I had had no idea! I had been sitting there, with my back towards the fire, not knowing that it was there ... The fire had started inside the cupboard, that's why I didn't notice it right away, but by now it had eaten through the wood and was coming out. I raced outside to get water, but it was pitchdark and I could not find the bucket that I knew was there. Blindly I reached out for it, and then I rushed back inside and doused the flames with water ...

Immediately, the irritation in my eyes was gone ... I sank on my bed, not believing what had just happened. Throughout all this, my dogs never moved, they just stayed in bed or sleeping on the floor, not having a clue what was going on. Well, when I started moving frantically they knew something was up, but before that even they had not known about the fire ...

And to think, that I was actually going to go to sleep, and I was close to just dropping on the bed and close my eyes ... The windows in the trailer were closed, because it gets cold at night ... My four dogs and I could have suffocated in there ...

I was sitting there in the darkness, realizing how lucky we all were, how close we had come to death ...

I was terrified of going to sleep now. I stayed awake, drank the little bit of amaretto I had left in a bottle ... and counted my blessings ...

The weird thing is that it had been burning before I even got home, because I smelled fire when I arrived home ... this is what I don't understand ... how? I know that the candles close to the wood have caused this, but how did this happen before I even got home when candles were not lit and no one can enter my property (not with my dogs, they won't allow it)? I just don't know.

This morning I was very pensive, I am grateful to be alive, and I feel things differently now ... Someone told me today that I look different today. I can't stop thinking about what happened and what could have happened.

This was scary and eye-opening. It taught me a lot, about how we live, how we waste our lives on trivial things sometimes, how we waste our energy on toxic and negative people, bad bosses, etc, how we push ourselves to the limits without a break, striving for our goals while forgetting to enjoy the journey. This really made me think ...

And I thought of my websites, and I realized how much I love them and how much I love the work I put in for them.

I am still very much impressed by what nearly happened. The guy who told me that I look different today said that God had given me a new chance, another opportunity. I think that is true. This was truly something that left me, well ... I can't find the right word for it ... I've been pretty shaken up about it, and also at peace, and then happy, a mix of many emotions