It's not unusual to feel as though you may come face to face with a prospective disaster. What is it about people, opportunities and events that seem to arrive just in the nick of time? It may not be easy to understand why we seem to be held back from what we desire to do, and then, you realize that maybe something beyond you has good reason to intervene. Consider this story:

Early Monday morning, Mary was in a hurry to get to the office. She had scheduled new client appointments and felt they would lead to a bonus she needed to move to a better neighborhood.  As she rushed around her apartment finishing last minute preparations, the phone rang. her babysitter was sick. Understanding as Mary was, this left her in a bind. Her trusted neighbour was away.  She thought of taking her baby to the office.  Her secretary might understand? Maybe not! Mary thought twice and decided to contact a friend who agreed to look after her baby. In order to get baby to her friend's home, Mary had to take a different route to work. In doing so, she encountered unexpected traffic hold ups in construction. As time passed, her stress level rose. 

After she dropped her baby off with her friend, she headed back toward the city and the office. Just as she thought she was getting ahead, she encountered a minor road accident which set her back again.  When the ambulance had a hard time getting though to the handful of victims, the car in front accidentally backed into hers.  There was more damage than a broken tail-light. Mary was forced to call her office to cancel those anticipated appointments.  She felt devastated. After all, those leads had taken a year to become real prospects.   At that point, she felt that everything was against her. Something about Murphy's Law, you know, when anything and everything can go wrong, then it will? She tried to stop her mind from thinking that way.

Once in the garage where the mechanic was looking at Mary's car, she sat down and sipped a coffee.  The radio was blaring and just after 8:45, the station cut programs to a news bulletin. 

"Flight 11 crashed at roughly 490 mph (790 km/h or 425 knots) into the north side of the North Tower of the World Trade Centre, between floors 94 and 98."  Mary was clearly astonished. The mechanic came running into the waiting area to listen to the rest of the broadcast.

"Do you believe that?" he asked, scratching his head. "That can't really be! It's crazy!"

"Oh my gracious!" replied Mary, covering her mouth with her hand.  "My office is on that block."

"You're darn lucky, lady!" cried the mechanic. "Good thing you weren't there on time today!" He went back to work but left the radio on. He wanted to do things to take his mind of the news. 

Just after 9am, the radio station cut to another bulletin: "Flight 175 crashes at about 590 mph (950 km/h) into the south side of the South Tower, banked between floors 78 and 84." (More gasps)

As she sat back in disbelief to make some phone calls, all Mary could think was how thankful she was for her sick babysitter, for the road construction and accidents that had held her up, for the cut on her hand that had required time to retrieve a band-aid, her for her dear old friend who lived in suburbs, for things that had set her behind that morning.  Setbacks were worth it.