i need to tell you something.

last weekend, i turned 31.
after a lovely, amazing, perfect dinner at justus drugstore, we were rear-ended by a guy driving a new mercedes. he did not have insurance.

this wasn't just a fender-bender, mind you. we were stopped and i don't think i heard him try to break.

my bumper is decimated.
and my back hatch door is dented.

i have whiplash.

so i went to the doctor for the whiplash. got an x-ray.
it showed arthritic changes in my back.
what?
what!
i just turned
31.

31.
not, 45.
or even 41.
31.

okay, so there's that.

on my actual birthday, the day after the wreck, i stayed in bed a long time because of the pain and opened gifts from beneath my down comforter.

i got a garmin forerunner.
and for a moment, i forgot how much pain i was and squealed like a kid on christmas.
and then i went running. (did you really think i would wait a day to try out the garmin?)
and it actually made the whiplash feel better. not perfectly better, but better.

maybe the moral here is the same thing i got tattooed on my arm just under two years ago.
"in darkness, a light shines."

and perhaps until i really learn to take hold of this promise, i will continue to go through things that are supposed to teach me.

but, to be honest, i'm pretty ready to stop learning this lesson for awhile.