"Death is the only wise adviser that we have. Whenever you feel as you always do, that everything is gong wrong and you're about to be annihilated, turn to your death and ask if this is so. Your death will tell you that you are wrong. Your death will tell you, 'I haven't touched you yet.'" -Journey to Ixtlan
One day in Arizona, I was driving my car on the Superstition Mountain Freeway. Superstition Mountains have their own lore, hence the name. It is said one of the Lost Dutchman's Mines exist there full of gold. Many have disappeared or been found dead, trying to find this gold. So that is a bit of the history and mystique of the Superstition Mountains.
So I'm taking the freeway through this mysterious area, and I am behind a large truck. Suddenly, large pieces of sheet metal began flying off the back of the truck. Then I spotted one of the sheets, aiming straight for my windshield. I took a deep breath, preparing to be decapitated. However, miraculously the sheet metal took a turn in the air, flipping over the top of my car. It just missed my windshield by mere inches.
However, in the moment when it was aiming my way, I did not panic. A strange calm came over me. I could not turn right or left. The freeway was too packed. I could not stop either cause it could have caused an even bigger accident.
I just felt a mysterious calming sensation in the moment. My life did not flash before my eyes. I did not say "Oh God" nothing like that. I just was calm and expecting to be decapitated.
Now after the sheet metal had flipped over my car, and that moment passed, then the reality sunk in. I was several inches away from death. I didn't panic yet, but I was trembling all over. I had somehow escaped being claimed by the Superstition Mountains. It was not my time. Death told me so. So, when you come close to death, things become more real, and more clear. You do begin to appreciate the simple things.
Luck or miracle I cannot know for sure. But I luckily was not another causality of those damn mountains. Spirit willing.