It happened so fast.

Driving home last night in the dark on a road where every turn is familiar, out of the corner of my eye a deer flashed into view on my side of the car. In that split second, with barely enough time to hit the brakes, what we have talked about so many times and that I have worked hard to internalize, came to my rescue.

Don’t swerve!

Gripping the wheel firmly I steered the car straight ahead, while simultaneously braking in hopes that the deer might make it across in time. Sadly it didn’t, and thankfully, the car hit with enough force that the deer didn’t linger in pain.

Because we live in a rural area where we share our little valley with a host of other creatures, it is wise to prepare for the entirely possible scenarios that might require our rapid and right response. A deer jumping out into the road is one such scenario, and so we educated ourselves on how to best handle what we hoped would never happen. Most serious accidents involving the sudden appearance of an animal in the road occur when drivers swerve in an attempt to avoid the animal, often resulting in the vehicle careening out of control, rolling over, and seriously injuring the passengers, or worse.

We never know when something is going to jump into our well worn path, requiring a rapid and right response.

We never know when we are going to need to call upon a course of action we’ve planned for but hope to never use.

We never know when we are going to have but a split second to grip the wheel tightly and choose to steer straight ahead, rather than swerve off course.

While we hope to never have to put into practice what we’ve prepared for, if we do, we will always be glad that we were prepared.