So, we live in North Dakota and we have a few of these signs on each end of the 3 or so bridges that are in town. Half of the year, they are just there but irrelevant because there is no snow or ice anywhere. I have driven past these signs probably a hundred times in the almost year that we've been here. We used to live right down the road from one of the bridges and I'm sure I have seen that sign and crossed the bridge more than most people who live here.
But here's the thing about warning signs, you get so used to seeing them or hearing them you start to tune them out. You don't notice them anymore. The danger might be there still, but you aren't as cognizant of the bright yellow sign and it's message.
Such is the case of my morning. I had finished visiting teaching one sister from church and was headed towards the second visit. I was by that same bridge (the one we used to live by). I got to the top when I lost control of the car. Lest you start panicking, remember I'm typing this right now so I'm obviously fine. Back to the story...I was about to the top of the bridge when I hit a patch of black ice. Because the day was sunny and the roads were clear, the Jeep was not in 4WD. My car started by just fishtailing the back tires. This happens a lot in the winter here, so it doesn't cause me to panic. Usually, the car catches the clear road, corrects itself, and the fishtailing is minor. However, today when the car didn't correct itself and swerved into oncoming traffic, I did get worried. The thing about this bridge is that the vantage point makes it difficult to see much when you are on your way up. Luckily, there was no one in the lane of oncoming traffic I went into. Trying to fix my situation, without making it worse, I turned the wheel just a fraction. Then, my car started sliding sideways...as in I was facing the right of the road out over the bridge and my car was across both lanes. I've never been in a car drifting completely sideways on the tires. Again, I was lucky no one was in the lane next to me. Then, the car started turning around to face the cars behind me in my lane. At this point, I could feel the uneasiness of the tires on the road more than ever and slammed on the brakes. Well the braking combined with the snowbank and the guardrail finally brought the Jeep to a stop. The car shows no damage, but I am pretty sore and have had a headache most of the day. Quintin (who was bundled up in his car seat) slept through the whole thing. I was able to back out and luckily the cars behind me were close enough to see what happened and not run into me but far enough back that I didn't hit them. So, I backed out of the snowbank/ guard rail area and drove home in tears.
Now back to my beginning. I have seen this sign:
a hundred times or more. I have crossed the bridge just as many times, in all weather (in fact that's where we were when we had the tornado warning and heard the sirens going off). But I got too used to the sign. The yellow wasn't as eye-catching; the warning wasn't as loud. And, I am lucky to be writing this now.
Don't get me wrong, I know that it's not my fault that I hit the black ice and lost control of the car. This happens every day. But, it's never happened to me before. Luckily, I am a law abiding citizen (did I just write that phrase?!) and WAS going the speed limit. Luckily, it was a clear day so the other cars could see me. Luckily, the other drivers maybe did see the sign, or were paying attention enough that things didn't turn out any worse than they did. Luck whatever. I know how blessed I am.
As this had me REALLY shaken up, I've been thinking about it a lot. In life, we have all sorts of warning signs. Every general conference is full of them:
-Read your scriptures
-Create an emergency preparedness kit
-Say your prayers
-Get out of debt
And the list goes on and on. We are given warning signs constantly. But, just like I got too comfortable with the sign "WATCH FOR ICE ON BRIDGE", we get too comfortable with the warning signs all around us, those listed above especially. Often times we don't understand why we're given certain warnings; we fail to see the bigger picture. We put off the warnings or ignore them because we can't see the "ice on the bridge"-the danger ahead-so it must not be there.
Thankfully, we have a Heavenly Father who knows us and loves us. If we live worthily, we are blessed with the Holy Ghost who sometimes has to be our guardrail. We often get promptings of little things to change in our lives, or little choices to make-Guardrails before going over the bridge.
I think the point of writing this is more for myself than anything else. I don't expect anyone to go start reading every warning label on everything in their house or mapping out every speed limit sign in the city. Take it from me, warning signs are there to help us. There isn't always danger ahead, but there could be-that's the beauty of it. You may go over the same bridge a hundred times with nothing happening. You may go a week without reading your scriptures and nothing bad happens. Or, maybe you'll hit the unexpected black ice and have your world spun around. The choice is up to you.
Maybe those warning signs are pretty important after all.
*NOTE: There was a van driving behind me that slowed down enough so that other drivers realized my car was out of control. Turns out the woman driving the van is from our ward. She called to check on me tonight as she witnessed the whole thing and knew the anxiety I was probably going through. I believe Heavenly Father places people in our lives when we need them most. Today, he put Alisa driving behind me making sure that things didn't get worse.
