Jen Jeffrey Billington: An Accidental Seizer

  • Tuesday, January 17, 2017
  • Jen Jeffrey Billington

Though I am not a photographer it is a hobby I enjoy and, when I see a gorgeous view with my eye I attempt to capture it with my camera so I can share it with others.

Sometimes, what I see requires me to get off course - the very reason I wanted a Jeep Wrangler 4WD …so I wouldn’t get stuck when I “seized the day”.

Sometimes seizing gets me in trouble (or at least in need of rescuing). But I don’t apologize for ‘doing life’ in this manner. It actually makes life more fun.

As a writer I haven’t yet developed the brain in which I can sit and stare at the wall to come up with a story – no, I have to write about what I experience. I have to ‘go ye therefore’ and, as I go… I find my story.

A few years ago, my husband Jason had let our Greyhounds run off leash and our fawn-colored Grey ‘Spec’ ran off into the woods leaving Jason to chase him. It was a very cold day so as I took the other two Greys back to their penthouse garage where they live, I waited for Jason.

It had been quite a while so I called out to him with no response and he was nowhere in sight. I thought of him running after Spec and possibly falling and breaking a bone or… what if he had a heart attack? So I took my 2WD Jeep Liberty and drove through the fields around our house looking for him. Somehow, my Jeep carried me over the frozen field to behind the woods, but when I got into the deeper part of the field where it held more moisture, the ground had not frozen enough to keep my tires from sinking in the wet bottoms.

Needless to say, my 2WD Jeep was stuck and Jason and I had quite an adventure getting it out of the muck. He could not understand what made me think I could take it in the field like that. I told him I thought a Jeep could go anywhere. Then I found out I needed a 4WD Jeep to be able to do that.

So last year we got a 4WD Jeep Wrangler. Problem solved! My son Andrew even took me off-roading and showed me how to use the 4WD through the creeks and mud.

Now I was invincible – I could go wherever I wanted!

But people have habit of only giving me half the information – as if I am supposed to ‘just know the rest’. “You need a 4WD to be able to do that,” they say… yet they don’t proceed to tell me I also need “mud tires” or that I need whatever else there is out there to seize the day.

I like seizing. I will never stop seizing. Whatever warnings I am given, whatever cautions I know to take - I will still live my life ‘going and doing’.

So after conducting an interview for The Murray Mirror yesterday, I had my work camera and decided to take a few shots of things I have been wanting to capture on the way home.

I stopped by MSU and took pictures of the stadium and I took pictures of the CFSB Center. And I planned to pull over for any beautiful sight I saw going home. Well, it started to rain and I didn’t want to get my camera wet, so I just drove home without anymore stops.

But as I approached the field just before my house, I saw with my photographic eye the house with the old tobacco barn and the field all in a pretty scene that must be captured!

I had a Jeep Wrangler and now I could drive in that field with 4WD and not get stuck! It had been rainy for a week so I knew it was pretty soggy, but I had it covered now… I could do this! Just a quick photo, no harm.

Parked in the middle of the field, I took a few shots of the house and barn and was satisfied. Now to drive back out onto the road.

Nope!

Regular drive made my tires spin a little, so I quickly stopped pressing the gas pedal. I was excited to put the gear in neutral just like my son taught me and proceed with the 4WD gear in place.

My tires still spun.

Oh yeah… Andrew had taught me to turn my wheel if I am ever stuck. So I turned my wheel and gave it the gas once more, but I soon realized that not taking that step first had caused me to already be sunk too far in the mud (and my tires were standard – not the mud tires I later found out I needed).

Yep – I was stuck. Yep – I needed rescuing. I knew Andrew was off and at home – a mile away, so I knew this was not a problem. Had he not been available for a quick rescue, I may have not seized the moment so quickly. I’m not reckless.

Andrew came to my rescue on his ATV with my five-year-old granddaughter Ellie Cheyenne. I knew my little ‘Giddy Up’ was about to have an adventure herself. I loved that!

She has the same ‘why not’ spirit of her daddy and Gramama and I knew she would love being a part of this. Her daddy did too.

Andrew hooked me up with his ATV and he and Ellie slowly pulled me out. I saw through my side mirror the delight in Ellie’s face as she felt a few thrust and the weight of the Jeep as I was being pulled out of the field.

Getting out of my bathed-in mud-Jeep, I hugged Ellie and quickly acknowledged HER moment when I saw her delight and I said, “Thank you for saving me, Ellie!”

She had the bi-i-i-iggest grin on her face and her eyes were full of sparkles as she gushed, “It was my first time!!”

I believe my inner-child connected with my grandchild in that moment and I was able to revel in excitement with her.

So what if I don’t have mud tires! So what if I got stuck. So what if I had to enlist help. I seized, I got the shot I wanted, I gave my son something fun to do, and my granddaughter experienced her ‘first time saving someone’.

Isn’t this what life is about? Engaging!

It’s not that I am ‘always into something’ - I’m not really a trouble maker. But, thinking I could drive in the soggy bottoms with my 4WD Jeep Wrangler …with standard tires, is something I wanted to try. The caution part was me knowing I did have help available if I couldn’t do it. So I seized.

I am not a ‘thrill-junkie’ where I need to jump out of a plane, climb a high mountain, or ski a devilish hill. I don’t seek to go where no man has gone before. And when I do things like this, it isn’t every day or that I set out to do it - it just ‘happens’.

What thrills me is usually ‘small scale’. Nothing really big or exciting to someone else… but just enough to say “I’m living life.”

I guess you could call me an ‘accidental seizer’.

As I go, I may not weigh the boundaries very well and I don’t think-it-to-death where I let something hold me back. I don’t worry about what I can’t do - I just do.

And, if I fail or if I don’t meet my expectations of the moment… I am still grateful for the moment.

jen@themurraymirror.com

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