Friends. We need to talk. Yesterday I wrote about enjoying each day and making the best of whatever may come. Otherwise, we risk wishing our life away while waiting for better days ahead. You can read about that here.

That published around 4 a.m. By 7:30 I had hit a deer. Just a quarter mile from home. On my way to a work meeting in a town 45 minutes away. It came out of nowhere and was in front of my car in the blink of an eye, as deer tend to do. I was even looking for deer because the population is so vast in my rural part of southern Ohio.

Can you say irony?

Bambi’s suicide mission put the day off track in more ways than I count. While I was physically fine I was considerably wounded in spirit. While rattled, I shifted straight into “make it work mode” and tried to figure out how to manage the reality of “the right now” at work alongside the reality of what needed done to fix my personal problems.

Still, I clung to the optimism of the morning message. Try to enjoy the day. Try not to wish away today’s life in favor of tomorrow. Blatantly ignore the successful whole foods eating plan of eight days in favor of stress eating pizza and Diet Coke with coworkers. Live life well.

That last part about the pizza and Coke wasn’t in the original message but sometimes improvisation is the way to go.

Yesterday made it crystal clear that I am one of the lucky ones and I need to remember that.

After all, rural America isn’t equipped with things like public transit and being in the country means that walking or even cycling to work either isn’t feasible or is unsafe. Being without a car in a rural area is a crisis when you need to go anywhere at all.

Yet, in my case, I benefited from the knowledge, kindness and generosity of a few important people in my life and from some strangers too. As of this writing, I feel cautiously optimistic that things will turn out better than I believed possible when I first saw my pretty little car with its hood that now resembles a snarled lip.

I learned later that the deer had a gunshot wound to the leg. It was likely suffering and I’m told that my hitting it was a blessing in disguise. I put it out of its misery. I’m clinging to that hope anyway.

Normally when things don’t go my way I assume that it’s forces greater than myself conspiring to keep me safe. Get behind a slow moving vehicle and avoid an accident down the road. Construction that prevents you from traveling your route of choice could keep you out of trouble later on. That sort of thing.

I’ll admit that watching a deer smash into my hood before sailing through the air like one of Santa’s reindeer made me question just how far my faith in that theory can extend. While I sort through all that in my mind, I’m holding tight to the optimism, gratitude and yes, the humor of it all. This was a laugh or cry kind of day and I don’t like tears.

I was incredulous and frustrated for most of the day but eventually found my sense of humor. 

Honestly, I am the only person I know that can smash up their car with a deer just hours after publishing a story about making the best of every day. Am I being taught a lesson? Big proclamations about happiness may be a poor choice moving forward but my internal optimist says that I should at least keep trying. If I am being taught a lesson, I fear I haven’t learned much. I’m evidently a slow learner.

Go out and have a terrific Tuesday!