THE ACCIDENT

At last it happened! In the 90's, After twenty five years of safe driving, and hundreds of thousands of miles, I was involved in an accident.
As I sat in the left hand lane of St. Clair Aenue in Toronto, waiting for the light to change, a half-ton truck loaded with lumber back into my car.

It was all over very fast - all I could see coming was the tailgate of the truck, and then there was a very sharp jolt.

The other driver and I got out to wait for the police. The lumber had scraped along the top of my hood and had hit the windshield where I was sitting and glanced ujpwards over the roof to about five feet behind my seat.

When the policeman came he said "my God, you were lucky to live through that"!

If the wood hadn't glanced upwards along the glass I would have been decapitated. All very neat and clean, and very fast!

It was then that I began to shake, and it took a few days to get back to normal

The thing that really hit me was the "thin line" that we tread between being and not being. That wood , in a flash, just as easily cut my head off, and all would have been over.
So, I learned, time is very precious. How much time do we have?
Couldn't an accident - a heart attack - a piece of meat jammed in the throat, whisked me away as if I had never been here?

What did I learn from the accident? Life is short, and should be treated with care.

Each morning I wake up to feel elated that I am here again to enjoy a beautiful morning, to hear the birds sing, to hear the childred as they begin their day; all the sights and sounds of life that we all take for granted. How precious they are and how lucky we are to have them.

One of the things about drinking that really bothered me was the fact that most of the time I was turned off to all these beautiful things. Either in a bar, or stretched in front of the Television or down in the basement making cheap wine.

I found that I was wasting precious time planning the drinking ahead, or being passed out from too much drinking.

The French have an expression for alcoholism which is literaly "the little death". I may have been sub-consciously wishing for this "little death" to escape the reality of life.

Well, not for me!

So I decided to quit completely, and went into the Donwood Institute for treatment of my alcohol addiction. (I have covered this phase of my life elsewhere). It was very difficult but life is a delicious and beautiful experience, and I am going to savour every minite of it while I can.

There is hope for the alcoholic. I made it, and am enjoying sobriety. You can do it also.

Can't you?

DON FELSTEAD