Lucky Break or Mystical Interlude?

The sky was dark, and a rainstorm was brewing when Jim and I left the doctor’s office. The time was 4 PM and we were about 12 miles from home. As I entered Interstate Highway 79, the rain turned violent with lightening, rolling thunder and powerful wind. Heavy rain pellets slammed against the windshield, overpowering the wipers and adding to the foggy spray thrown off by other vehicles. Shaken, I cautiously followed the car ahead using its off-on brake lights to gauge my distance from it. To make matters worse, trucks and large vehicles barreled past in the left lane, spewing more blinding mist.

My husband, Jim, remained outwardly calm beside me. I have been his caregiver since 2021 following his remission from brain cancer. The treatment ordeal left him with memory deficiencies and physical weakness, while, at the same time, revealing his depth of character and undaunted courage. So, here we were in the midst of this highway tribulation, when I suddenly remembered that our pet, Gilda, was low on cat food. Knowing that the next exit would take us to the parallel route leading home, where our supermarket was located, I announced that we needed to stop at the store. He nodded, stoically. With great caution I slowed and took the exit. Then I thought we could wait in the parking lot for the storm to let up.

About a block away from the store, a warning light flashed on the car  dashboard, indicating that a back tire was low. I was relieved knowing that a gas station equipped with air pumps sat next to the supermarket’s parking lot, so I headed straight for it.

Wrestling with a small umbrella, I was surprised to discover how low the tire was. The hub cap was only a few inches from the pavement. Filling the tire took longer than I had predicted, and soaked me in the process. Once inside the car, I told Jim that the cat food could wait; we were going home.

The storm had subsided, but the sky was still dark and rain was still falling in buckets. We re-entered the traffic, and in less than a block, the warning light flashed on again. The tire was obviously going flat. The time was 4:45, and we were caught in heavy work traffic. Fortunately, the Kia garage where we bought the car was only a few blocks away. Slipping into the left lane, I managed to cross the opposing lane and pull up to the service door, which opened automatically. A mechanic checked the spare and told us it wouldn’t work. He also informed us that it was too near closing time to replace the tire. When I carefully helped Jim out of the car, so he could see the damage, the mechanic changed his mind, even though it extended his work day to do so.

The next day I said to Jim, “You realize, don’t you, that we experienced a mystical interlude last night.”

“How so?” he asked.

“Think about it. I was a bundle of nerves driving through that awful storm, barely able to see the car ahead. All I could think of was making it home safely. Then, out of the blue, Gilda’s cat food pops into my head! There’s the exit coming up, so I take it.”

Jim smiled, “That put us near the air pump and the Kia garage in the nick of time. And how about that young mechanic who stayed after his quitting time to replace the tire!”

“Right,” I added. “I hate to think of how things might have gone if we’d stayed on the interstate highway during that dangerous storm, with a tire gone flat and no safe place to pull over.”

There was a time when Jim would have said something like, “Well, you had a lucky break, didn’t you.” That was then. Now, he smiled and nodded. I bowed my head and he joined me in a prayer of gratitude.

It has been my experience that the more I recognize and express gratitude for my mystical interludes, the more they happen. I have also come to believe that they are nudges from the spiritual realm, letting us know that we are never alone. 

What about you? Can you recall a time when you experienced a “lucky break?” Could it have been a mystical interlude?