I am sometimes in the exact right spot at the exact right moment. Like when I was jogging across the Brooklyn bridge and bumped into an old friend, or when I sat in the right car and seat on the subway for another old friend to come and sit right next to me. There have been many moments of synchronicity in my life, which I love and live for. Right place, right time. That has influenced the jobs I have gotten, the friends I have made, the food I have eaten, and the apartments I have lived in.
Last week I had a moment like that, except it felt like wrong place at wrong time. I headed out of school leisurely walking to meet a friend in union square. I could have walked in any direction but I ended up on the corner of 23rd and 9th at the exact moment a biker got hit by a bus and was left in the middle of the intersection bloody and groaning. I couldn’t believe it. People gathered around. Traffic was stopped. Emergency workers came. I moved his very broken bike to the corner. He was put on a stretcher and all I could mumble was ‘it’s going to be OK’ as he continued to groan and moan.
I walked away from that intersection in tears. How did that just happen? One minute he is pedaling along the next minute everything changes. I hope and I pray that he is recovering as I write this and will continue with his life perhaps with an added sense of gratitude. But it stirred up a lot in me. My relationship to death and the fact that it can happen at any moment. I think I’m invincible – I will live forever. But it’s not true, nor should it be.
It was a reminder for me, I had to ask myself:how are you using this precious time you have on earth? Are you being yourself fully and unapologetically, or are you hiding, waiting, playing it safe. I realized as I’m definitely moving out of my comfort zone, there are still many more places and spaces I can show up completely me.
So maybe I was just at the right place at the right moment to get the wake up call that I needed. One thing is for certain, I will never forget those images that unfolded at that intersection, and am reminded at how incredible firemen, policemen, and emergency workers are. Who come immediately, act so quickly to provide an incredible service. Invaluable people.