A Life Crash Can Lead to Great Happiness

Lately, as I have been working at reducing clutter in my life and home, slowing down my lifestyle and doing more things that make me happy, I have noticed my stress levels plummet. And I just realized a few days ago that I kind of came to this place in my life by accident, quite literally.

I have come to the conclusion that life has a weird, quirky, funny way of showing you the right path you should be on. If you listen and follow the signs, that is. Above you see a picture of a wrecked car. It’s a car that rolled over six times in the highway median. The brunt of the impact on the passenger side. You see, my husband and I were in that car-and we walked away from that crash.
The accident happened in February 2010, just two days before Valentine’s Day. Shortly after the crash, I began worrying what my husband and I would do with only one car, and how long we’d have to go until we got another one. We didn’t have the money for a second car, and honestly, when I really thought about it, totaling my car was ultimately a blessing.
We were in debt, and my husband was out of work at the time, so losing my car meant gaining about $300 a month. We felt instantly richer. So with extra money in our pockets we set out to reduce some of our other monthly bills. We moved into a smaller apartment that is more centrally located than our last place was. Now we can walk to the grocery store, thrift stores, restaurants, the library and hubby can walk to/from work. We’ve only lived here eight months but we’re chipping away at our debts and couldn’t be happier with our simpler living.
I guess what I am really trying to share is you have to look for the simple ways of living within your life. We could have immediately replaced our other car, and gotten even further into debt. We could have stayed in the bigger, more expensive apartment. We could have moved into a different complex, one that wasn’t within walking distance of so many things.
But I am so glad we didn’t. When I think back on our accident, I think of it as a wake up call. A call that our life was about to crash, not just that our car actually did. Had we stayed on the course we were on, I really don’t know where we’d be right now. I don’t even know if I’d be writing this blog. I strongly feel my life would still be going in that other wrong direction. I wouldn’t have taken the time to reflect, slow down and realize I have to fulfill my creative side. That life isn’t just a pursuit to get more stuff, and having less means getting more.