It was November 1995. My life was spinning with stress, anxiety and over-commitments to work and home. I was barely breathing, let alone functioning.

So much was on my mind as I drove to work around 8:30 one morning. Traffic was heavy and the roads were slick from a drizzling rain. I must have been going 55 or 60 mph as I moved into the access lane toward the 495 beltway for Virginia. The exit ramp speed on that sharp turn is posted at 25 mph.

My car began hydroplaning. I felt no contact with the ground. The car swung wildly and uncontrollably side to side. I could not control the steering wheel.

I was in a total panic. All I could say was, "Oh my God, Oh my God." My car was headed into the beltway, which was filled with vehicles. There was nothing I could do to stop it. I was sure I was going to be killed, and I felt grateful that my two little children were not with me and not experiencing this terror.

Yet while all this was happening, I felt a soft and yet firm protective bubble of comfort and security all around me. Something was holding me tight! I didn't realize it then, but I know now that it was God's presence and His loving arms.

Suddenly, right before my car sped into the beltway, it hit a tall highway lamppost. In a dream-like scene, I saw the lamppost falling into the exit lane instead of the highway. My car spun around and stopped at the side of the highway, facing backward.

Somehow I was able to turn around my car around. I sat in a daze and, to my incredible amazement, found that I was perfectly fine.

It was then that I thought about what would have happened had that tall lamppost fallen into the highway with so many cars moving in such busy traffic. I couldn't dare to imagine.

That morning's incident was God's wake-up call for me. As I was living in such a shut-down and disconnected state, I didn't act on God's message then and there. However, after about a month, I left my job and slowly began my spiritual recovery and healing.

I am on my journey of gratitude as I am learning to accept my childhood pains and shame. And I continue to work at loving myself, even with my many shortcomings. I have come a long way from that fateful November morning some 11 years ago and I stay on my path of receiving God's light one day at a time.

Soo P.

Washington, D.C.