My Stop Card Moment

It was an overcast day with monsoon at its peak. I was enjoying the Sunday afternoon with few of my friends when we decided to take the car out for a short drive to enjoy the weather. Seeing the raindrops fall on the windshield elevated our mood and we started our drive with lot of excitement. After all, how often you drive for pleasure when clouds are pouring?

As we were driving, another car came along. Within seconds I exchanged a glance with the other driver and before we knew, we were racing through the wet roads.

It did not take us long before the race became competitive. I was way above the speed limit. With all my attention focused solely on the race, I lost awareness of the surroundings. Suddenly, I felt my friend at the rear seat squeeze my shoulder firmly and it zapped me back to the reality. I realized that I was approaching a residential area and immediately put my foot off the accelerator. Moments later, as the windscreen wiper swapped through, I spotted a child sunk in joy of rain running to cross the road. I immediately applied the brakes and managed to stop the car at a safe distance. The other car ahead of us too applied the brakes but with the high speed and wet road, they only managed to stop after toppling few times. Luckily, the child was unhurt but few in the toppled car sustained serious injuries.

The incident shook each of us. In that moment, I heard my inner voice acknowledging my friend’s presence of mind which made me slow down just in time and prevented what otherwise could have resulted in an accident.

This was one of the many ‘Stop Card’ moments of my life.

As I thanked my friend, I also wished someone in the other car could have shown the same concern to warn the driver of his action.

My takeaway from this incident…

Value those who ‘Stop’ you from doing any unsafe act… they stop because they care!

Do you have any such Stop Card moments to share?