生命咏叹

　　——慢一点儿，来得及

　　我先听到刺耳的声响——轮胎发出的声音。一辆汽车，显然是失去了控制，冲着我和我四岁的儿子飞驰而来。当时我们正站在人行道上，等着穿过车来人往的马路。没有时间做任何反应;一切都发生在转瞬之间。

　　那辆黑色大轿车撞在离我们几米远的人行道上。那情景永远不会从我的记忆中抹去。我不知道汽车离我们有多近，因为我在最后一刹那把身子转开了，但它确实很近。人们停下车问我们伤着没有。记得当时我说：“没碰着我们，”就好像人家谁也没看见似的。随后，我弯下腰紧紧地搂住了我儿子。

　　“妈妈，那辆车差点儿把我们轰隆了。”斯科特眉飞色舞地说着，手中还拿着上午在幼儿园用硬纸片做的小猫。一个一吨重的铁家伙，以每小时80公里的速度冲向一个18公斤重的小孩儿，他不知道这意味着什么。不可否认，他的世界观是混乱的。他的许多认识来自于卡通片，尤其是《蜘蛛人》。他认为蜘蛛人会从天而降，并可以把任何人救出险境。

　　我身不由己地走向那辆汽车，车已停在一幢楼前的几米远处。一个60多岁的妇女坐在车里，手还紧紧攥着方向盘。

　　“你没事吧?”我问她，言外之意是说：你刚才犯心脏病了吗?为什么偏偏要跟我和我的孩子过不去呢?

　　她开口道：“有人挡住了我……”。我打断她的话说，也许我们晚上都该祈祷。我的火气直到后来才发泄出来。

　　从那天起，我在院中种了上百棵球茎植物——蝴蝶花、番红花、水仙花——都是早春的神奇。一个搞园艺的朋友把这些花叫做“与未来的合约”。

　　我已告诉丈夫我爱他，并写了3封迟到的感谢信。我还把生活中的风险挫折思来想去，也考虑了生活中出现的匆忙仓促。

　　无疑，那个险些要了我们命的妇女当时很匆忙，很可能她为了赶下一个绿灯正在加速。她提到的那个挡了她一下的司机可能也很匆忙，竟不惜冒险驾车闯入车流。

　　我也并非无可指责。我们停在人行道上，是想跑着横穿马路，而不想多走半条街区到交通灯处的人行横道过马路，只为了从那忙忙碌碌的一天中省出两分钟。这样一来，我却差一点省去了两条性命。

　　我从来就不是一个轻易冒险的人。就在一周前，我刚从日本回来，9天的旅程，我坐了6架飞机，差不多飞了25000公里。那是6次起飞，6次降落，一共有12次成为晚报头条新闻的机会。

　　那次由横滨一位仁兄提供的旅行几乎泡汤。我差点把机票寄了回去，因为我不愿意冒乘飞机长途旅行的危险。

　　想想吧，我经历了25000公里的空中旅行平安无事，却险些在离家只有三个街区远的地方丧命。想想吧，我的儿子险些被夺去生命。想想吧，我的丈夫几乎要承受失去两个亲人的痛苦。

　　如今，我决定放慢速度，去想想春天，想想那些鲜花和我们的孩子——我们的无辜生命，我们与未来的合约。

　　那次事故后的礼拜天，我们在教堂里吟颂赞美诗，那些诗句在我脑海中回响着：“让我们认识光阴之短暂，愿智慧永驻心间。”

　　主啊，还要教会我们放慢速度。

　　Hey, Take It Easy…

　　It’s never too late to slow down

　　I heard the noise first – the sound of screeching tyres. A car, obviously out of control, was racing straight towards me and my four-year-old son as we stood on the footpath waiting to cross a busy street. There was no time to do anything; it all happened in a millisecond.

　　The vision of that big black car hitting the footpath a few meters from us will never be erased from my memory. I don’t know how close the car came to us, because I turned away at the last second, but it was close. People stopped their cars and asked if we were OK.

　　“It didn’t hit us,” I remember saying, as though that weren’t obvious. Then I bent down and hugged my son.

　　“Mum, that car nearly boomed us,” Scott said brightly, still clutching the cardboard cat he’d made at preschool that morning. He has no idea what a ton of metal going 80 kilometers an hour can do to 18 kilos of a little boy. His worldview is admittedly distorted. Much of it comes from cartoons, especially Spiderman, who he believes can swoop down and fly anyone out of danger.

　　I found myself walking to the car, which had come to a halt a few meters from a building. A woman in her sixties sat inside, still clutching the steering wheel.

　　“Are you all right?” I asked. Translation: did you just have a heart attack? Why did you just try to kill me and my little boy?

　　“Someone cut me off…” she started. Interrupting her in midsentence, I said maybe we’d both better say our prayers that night. The anger didn’t set in until later.

　　Since that day, I’ve planted over a hundred bulbs in my yard – irises, crocuses, narcissus – those miracles of early spring. “A contact with the future,” a gardener friend calls them.

　　I have told my husband I love him and have written three overdue thank-you notes. I’ve also done a lot of thinking about the risks we take in life. And the big hurry we are in.

　　The woman who nearly killed us was in a hurry, no doubt about it. Very likely she was speeding to catch the next traffic light. The driver she said cut her off was probably in a hurry, too, willing to take the risk of turning into traffic.

　　Nor am I blameless. We had stopped on the footpath because I wanted to shave two minutes off my busy day by running across the street rather than walking half a block to the crossing at the lights. Instead, I nearly shaved off two lifetimes.

　　I have never been one to take risks lightly. Just a week before, I had returned from a nine-day trip to Japan, flying almost 25,000 kilometers in six different planes. That makes six takeoffs and landings, 12 opportunities to be the top story on the nightly news.

　　The trip, a gift from a brother in Yokohama, almost didn’t take place. I nearly posted the ticket back because I wasn’t willing to risk a long plane journey.

　　To think I’d survived 25,000 kilometers of air travel, only to be almost killed three blocks from home. To think my son might have been snatched from this life. To think my husband might have had to deal with two deaths.

　　Today, I resolve to slow down and think about the spring, the flowers and our children our innocents, our contracts with the future.

　　At church on the Sunday after the incident, the words of a psalm we sang resonated in my head: “Teach us to know the shortness of our days; may wisdom dwell within our hearts.”

　　And teach us, Lord, to slow down.

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