This is a business blog. More specifically, it is about marketing. However, today I want to drift away from talking about marketing and reflect on an incident that has me thinking about life in a much more general sense. You see, this past week I was working with some of my clients as they were on a highway job site. You have driven past construction zones, I am sure. This was a section of highway that was completely closed down to any traffic. However, a car came off of an exit ramp, blew through a stop light, crossed two lanes of busy traffic, and jumped the pavement into the construction zone before plummeting over the side of the road some 20 feet down an embankment. The speed at which the driver was traveling was frighteningly fast. I would guess it to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 70-80 mph to be able to jump an entire lane of the road (the skid marks affirmed the airborne facts.)

The first question anyone asked – which I am sure you are wondering as well – was anyone injured? The driver owes his life to his airbag, but he suffered some internal injuries and was taken on a backboard to the local hospital. The paving crew foreman was very close to the car when it went airborne – I would say within three or four feet of it when it went over the embankment. His name is Jason. I had just met him a minute before the incident. Jason was able to grab hold of a stake in the ground and pull himself one step out of the way before the car went over the hill. He came within a step of being a dead man. He walked away, by the goodness of God, with only a cut on his finger from where he grabbed the stake.

Jason was shaken, but went back to work. And so did I, but I couldn’t stop thinking of what might have just happened – about how close we all came to a tragedy. We went about our business, but in my mind, it was not business as usual. I began to think about the number of times that my steps have been guided this way or that, out of the way of danger, and how I have taken that for granted. But it might not be just out of the path of certain tragedy. It might be that my steps have been guided to something good – something very good. Yet, how many times do we stop and recognize what has just happened? I know in my life, I am rushing on to the next thing too often to stop and contemplate such a thing – be it stepping away from catastrophe or stepping into something extremely beneficial.

As I thought about all of this, a few notions crossed my mind. First, slow down, especially in construction zones – just slow down. You will get to wherever you are going when you get there. Second, in slowing down, it may be time to recognize the incredibly good things that are happening all around us. That might mean putting aside the distractions and doing a little contemplative thinking. It is good for the soul. Third, it is a worthy cause to express thanks to the source of the goodness in our lives. Gratitude is a great quality. I am going to express it more often than not. I recognize that my steps are guided whether I can see the hand that leads me or not. That was demonstrated to me in a very powerful way this week. I don’t want to take that for granted.