She will dance again…

She dances in the moonlight, feet barely skimming the earth as she spins, arms spread to the heavens, beckoning the stars to her embrace. And they obey. Laughter at the sheer joy of every moment flows around her, draws others to her like honey – spiced with her wit and tongue. Her friends stand in awe, entranced by the life – by the living – that she shares with them so freely.

We could have lost that girl this weekend.  Taylor was in a car crash about three hours from here, leading to that feared 1 a.m. call.  But Taylor is fine other than cuts and bruises, and the weekend made points about connections.

  • Cell phones must be with you to connect immediately.  The call came to my son from the phone of a rural Indiana police officer.  Andrew’s was one of the only numbers Taylor could remember, and her phone had been ejected from the car as it flipped.  But we were all upstairs asleep, and his phone was in the kitchen.  No one answered.
  • Human connections are unaffected by distance.  Andrew woke up.  Perhaps some part of his subconscious heard the phone, but not likely given his ringtone and the fact that he’d left it downstairs.  It’s hard to hear from ten feet away.  Still, fifteen minutes after the call, Andrew awoke and decided to go to the kitchen for a drink of water.  While there, he checked his phone, got the message and called back.  At this point, Taylor had been taken to the hospital but was okay, and Andrew told the police officer we would come get her.
  • Cell phones still connect, even when lost.  As we hit I-70 West headed for Indiana, Andrew texted Taylor’s phone to tell her we were on our way.  He doesn’t know why, since we believed her phone was lost or broken. The black phone lay in the dark cornfield, ten feet from the car.  It lit up with the incoming text, and the police officer who’d remained at the scene retrieved it.
  • People connect with people.  If you’ve read Taylor’s post from this weekend, you already know this one.  People who could have passed by –  even a guy on crutches – trudged into the cornfield where the car came to rest to help a total stranger.

Lots of other things happened this weekend, too personal to share on this blog.  But I walk away from the weekend feeling good.  I’m reminded that as much as I love and depend on technology, it is valuable only as a tool to connect people.  This weekend strengthened many bonds in my circle of friends and family.  Some new bonds were formed that will be as enduring as the old ones. And we still have Taylor.

Once the soreness subsides, she will dance again in the moonlight… although in full disclosure, if Taylor ever danced as I’ve described, she would trip on a tree root!

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3 Comments

  1. Ten points for making me cry, Terri. I love you guys, too, but you’re wrong about that last bit. I wouldn’t trip on a tree root. I’d trip over my own feet!

  2. Touched beyond belief by your thoughts and deeds. There are no words,

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