I Got Hit by a Moose: A Lesson in Trusting What We Cannot See

On my way to our Piss Off Perfect Retreat, I got hit by a moose.

Yes. A moose.

And to be clear, I didn’t hit the moose. The moose hit ME.

I was driving through the Colorado mountains on I-70, about 15 minutes from our retreat, when suddenly a huge bull moose came running directly toward my car.

I don’t remember having time to think.

I remember gripping the steering wheel and saying:

“No. No. No. No. No.”

As if somehow the moose and I could negotiate this.

We could not.

He ran directly into the passenger side of my 2004 Honda Pilot.

I heard the thump. Felt the impact. And somehow, I just kept holding onto the steering wheel and stayed in my lane.

There were cars all around me. A semi was behind me. I pulled onto the shoulder, and when I looked back, I could see the moose down on the interstate and cars and the semi trying to make their way around him.

I was stunned.

I got out of my car, fully expecting to see massive damage.

Nothing.

I walked around again.

Nothing.

Eventually, I found a small dent and a scratch underneath the passenger door frames.

That was it.

I wasn’t hurt.

My car wasn’t totaled.

I was standing on the side of I-70 thinking, What the hell just happened?

So, Naturally, I Called Jessica

“I just got hit by a moose.”

She thought I was kidding.

And then I asked her, “What do I do?”

As if she would have a protocol for this!

Of course I didn’t know what to do. Who do I know who’s ever been hit by a moose?

Eventually, it occurred to me that perhaps 911 would be a good idea.

By the time I called, they had already received numerous calls about the accident.

Unfortunately, the moose was badly injured and ultimately had to be put down. That still makes me sad.

But over the next few days, I kept thinking about what had happened.

The Part I Can’t Explain

A bull moose can weigh well over 1,000 pounds.

How does an animal that size run into the side of my car at interstate speed…and I walk away without a scratch?

How does my 22-year-old Honda Pilot walk away with little more than a dent and a scratch?

And then I started wondering about something else.

What if my car taking that impact changed what happened behind me?

There were other cars. There was a semi. And somehow, there was no pileup. No overturned truck. No second accident.

Would something worse have happened if that moose had made it farther into traffic?

I don’t know.

I’ll never know.

And maybe that’s part of the lesson.

We Don’t Always Get to Know

We spend so much of our lives wanting to understand.

Why did this happen?

What does it mean?

How is this going to turn out?

How do I control what happens next?

But sometimes life doesn’t give us an explanation.

Sometimes it gives us an experience.

And standing there beside that highway, I felt something I can’t prove, calculate, or explain:

I was protected.

And I can’t help wondering if perhaps others were protected, too.

That doesn’t mean nothing will ever hit us.

Things hit us.

Loss. Change. Disappointment. An ending we didn’t choose. A phone call we weren’t expecting.

Or, apparently, a freaking moose.

Maybe This Is What Protection Really Means

Maybe protection isn’t a life where nothing ever happens to us.

Maybe protection is what holds us when it does.

Maybe there are forces at work in our lives that we will never completely understand.

Maybe we’ve already been guided around things we never even knew were there.

Maybe we’ve been protected a thousand times and simply never saw it.

And maybe faith isn’t about understanding everything.

Maybe it’s trusting even when we don’t understand.

Knowing without needing proof.

Holding the wheel when life comes charging out of nowhere…and discovering that somehow, you’re still standing.

I’m still pondering this one.

But today, I’m a little more aware of life’s miracles.

A little more grateful.

And a whole lot more willing to trust what I cannot see.

Your Weekly Shift

Think about your own life for a moment.

Where might you be more supported, guided, or protected than you realize?

Maybe you don’t need to understand everything that’s happening right now.

Maybe you don’t need to know exactly how it all works out.

Maybe, for today, you can simply trust that there may be more happening on your behalf than you can currently see.

With Love.

Michelle