Thus it happened: Early last evening while driving home in a windy snowfall, half a mile from my exit, car begins to spin on the highway. Ice. Sliding. No control. Speed and slow motion at once. World receding; there is only this. Circling once and then swerving into the next lane. Spinning around, coming back across the other lane, and into the roadside ditch. Heading down and then up into the rise of earth, spinning around once more until facing up into the highway, headlights angling toward the night sky .

I bow in gratitude to have walked away from this scene. And to have no others harmed in this wild movement of high speed metal on ice.

How poignant it is being human in this vast, mysterious universe. How fragile and tender our lives. The swirl of this particular body, mind, heart, and its ever-shifting conditions. We are all together in this.