For two days, I have been searching for the right words. I have been looking for the words to describe one of the most profound moments I have ever experienced. Up until now, I haven't been able to find them. But maybe that's because I need to let them find me.

It happened Friday morning. There was a bus accident at my son's school. Had I been watching TV, I would have seen it on the local news. But that's not how I found out about it, because I wasn't home.
My husband and I were on our way to our favorite restaurant. We had decided to go to breakfast.. It was a last minute decision. The idea occurred to me suddenly.

We were stopped at an intersection, when John saw the flashing lights. He had to point them out to me, because I was daydreaming.  They were quite a distance away from us, but I could see the rescue vehicles that belonged to them. And  for some reason as I was looking in that direction, my son, Thomas, crossed my mind. He was supposed to go on a field trip with his kindergarten class at 9:30. I looked at the clock- it was 9:31.

In that exact moment, my husband turned on the radio. We had tuned in late to breaking news.There had been a bus crash at my son's school. Details were just becoming available.

Without a word, my husband drove down a side street to reach the crash site. The road was blocked, so I got out of the car and ran to a policemen who was standing by a car that had flipped on its side. I told him I had just heard about the accident on the radio- that my child may have been involved in the crash. He spoke to me very calmly and with great compassion. His words literally took my breath away.

   "Oh, that's a different accident", he said. "None of the children were injured". 

  " Is everyone OK over here?", I asked,  looking at the wreckage in front of me, not fully aware of what he had just said.

   "Yes", he said. "Everyone, is OK".

Thanking him, and thanking God, I ran back to the car to tell my husband what I had just heard. We drove home in silence.

The rest of the morning happened quietly.  I called the school to confirm what the policeman had said to me. The principal reassured me that everything was OK.  Fifteen children had been taken to the hospital for observation, she explained.  If my son had been involved in the accident, I would have received a message. I hadn't heard anything, because he was on a different bus.


It was a chain reaction crash. The driver of a sports car tried to pass a bus and hit a van head on. The van hit a car. The car hit a bus. The bus hit another bus that was filled with kindergarteners.Thank God all the chldren are OK.

Had I been home, the television would have been on. I would have seen a tiny sports car, crushed like an accordion, under the front wheel of a bus. I would have heard that children were being taken to the hospital, not knowing they were ok- not knowing if my son was among them.

When I think about the sequence of events-the Divine timing of them that led me to the truth, I have to remember to breathe. I am profoundly moved and deeply humbled at the same time- so far beyond grateful for the ways the Universe whispered to me.