Epiphany Part III: Moving On

To recap my rambling journey thus far, please click the links below:

Epiphany Part I: The Accident
Epiphany Part II: The Aftermath

So, for those of you that have been following my story thus far--you know I pretty much crumbled after my accident, right?

Right.

So what was it that finally helped me out of the deep dark hole I found myself in?

It was this:
To most people (even my husband) this sticker wasn't significant at all.
But it wasn't for them. It was for me.
It meant something TO ME.
And finding it there, on the dash of my totaled car at the tow-lot, days after the accident, was HUGE.
It was a sticker from a Christmas Eve service I went to at church the year before. I kept it under a pile of CD's in my truck, mostly because that's where it landed on my way home from the service. I didn't intentionally carry that sticker around with me. Like most car clutter, it was just there in the pile of random things that had accumulated over the years.
Until now.
The CD's, sunglasses (my favorite pair) and other miscellaneous items were strewn and broken all over the car. I found pieces in every floorboard, both the driver's and the passenger's, both front and back seats. Yet here was this sticker, light as a feather, lying perfectly on the dash for me to find as I gathered my things and said goodbye to a car who was pretty much like family.
My mouth dropped open and a weight lifted off my chest. Then and there, I gave up the burden I'd been carrying around.
You see, I don't believe in coincidences. And though the police officer at the accident scene told me how lucky we all were to walk away, for the control freak inside of me, I still needed closure. I fully believed them, knew I'd been lucky, but I still needed something else. Part of me needed to know that I was going to be okay, that I would get past this. And just as reality around me crumbled, this tiny little significant thing was what I needed to be reminded of.
Trust Love's Heart.
I knew where it came from and what it meant to me. Only me. It might not make sense to anyone else and that's okay. For me, just seeing it there on my dash was a sign that it was time to heal, it was time to move on, to be okay.
Now this sticker rides around in my new car with me as a constant reminder that we're only truly alone if we choose to be. And not just in a religious way either. We're surrounded by loved ones, but it's our choice whether or not we let them in, whether we choose to be loved or to love in return.
Love is always the path to healing.