January 12 in my life is marked and celebrated as a
#lifesavingday by a
#saveroflives human being,
@brendanlioneljohnson. Three years ago, I literally and figuratively ran out of gas on highway 401 at night, in the middle of January. I have never run out of gas in my life. I was returning from Toronto to Guelph by myself, after a series of meetings, and the first thought that came to my head was
not what to do next, but what does this mean?
After trying to contact CAA* (the Canadian Automobile Association) and others,
@brendanlioneljohnson stayed with me through text, making me smile and laugh, what I needed most to get through the fear of massive trucks and cars zipping by me. Offering to come and find me, I said I would be fine as CAA said they would be there in 15 minutes for this urgent case. It took CAA
over two and a half hours, and they
still could not find me. I kept receiving audio recorded messages from CAA saying they would be there in 11 minutes, 29 minutes, etc. Yes, this is after getting the message that they viewed this as an ‘urgent’ case. In the meantime, the car battery died and fear started sinking in – would cars see me? Lights don’t work when the car battery dies, I found out. I was getting so cold, and my sense of comfort and safety went sharply into fear.
Sensing the shift in my situation, and rapid descent into fear (and coldness), Brendan came and found me on the highway. He phoned CAA to let them know where exactly I was. I am still not sure how he could find me and CAA couldn’t on this major highway; that he did, I am forever and ever grateful. The lesson? Oddly enough, the lesson for me was much less about making sure my gas tank is always full, but more that the universe was telling me I can’t go on with my life as it as. Something needed to shift. I had been contemplating a few decisions to let go of some things, that I just couldn’t carry any more. I felt that this situation was signalling to me, in a dramatic way, that I needed to make a decision. I figuratively had been feeling out of ‘fuel’ for so long, and this was the tipping point.
Running out of fuel, literally and figuratively…