#celebratelu At That Moment

photo from Google images, not my phone!  

If my day is off to a good start, I reach a milepost on the Interstate as Charles Osgood shares his Osgood File.  I was right on schedule the other day when he started talking about one of the top wide receivers in the country, Malcolm Mitchell, who was reading things he never dreamed he could read and was eagerly participating in a book club consisting of 40-50-60 year old women! http://osgoodfile.com/  (You Can't judge a Book By It's Cover, September 17, 2014)

I work with kids who find reading challenging, so my focus was heightened.  I took a mental note of the name thinking maybe I'd try  to get a picture and create a bulletin board about him...or maybe I could get him to autograph a picture and offer it as a reading incentive....but the last thing I remember about the Osgood File that day was something about football coming naturally to him, ...a gift....unlike reading....he had to work hard to read.....

It was a good thing my mental acuity had been heightened because at that moment, traveling with the pack well above the speed limit, a little black car right next to mine began to enter my space. Somehow, I knew I could not move left as another car was in that slot.  He or she was not looking and my heart began to beat outside of my chest. Somehow, I placed the palm of my hand firmly onto my steering wheel and laid into the horn as if pressing harder would somehow create a magic bubble around my own silvery transporter.  Yet, he kept coming, and while I pumped my brakes and hoped the guy or gal behind me was also experiencing a moment of enhanced acuity, I saw, for a moment, my life, my future, my hopes, and my dreams vanish.

Somehow, at the very last possible moment, with only a sliver of space between us, the black car corrected his course.  Perhaps he or she had been talking on the phone or maybe even texting (although for the life of me I cannot figure out HOW someone could do that at 70+mph on a crowded interstate no less). Perhaps he or she was entranced by the sunrise where fuchsia encased clouds were surrounded by gold fringe.  Perhaps he or she was listening to another radio station!

Thanks to Charles, Malcolm and a Guardian Angel or two, or three, the rest of my trip was uneventful.  I finished sipping my coffee as I stopped at the light nearest to school and marveled that I had made it to school on schedule.  I celebrated small not always acknowledged moments of the day like lunch duty!  I celebrated Open House where I assured parents that sometimes learning to read is hard work, but working together, miracles happen, every day.

I made it to today and I really need to acknowledge Charles, Malcolm and Guardian Angels, everywhere, who not only were hard at work at that moment, but who were also using their gifts, helping small miracles to happen for so many, all week, in all the corners of my life. 

http://www.ruthayreswrites.com/