When danger is in the area....

The other night I took my girls to a Walmart in an area of town that is not very safe.  It was early in the evening and I figured that we would be fine.  I had my alerts up and was very aware of my surroundings.  I did everything right, keeping my hand on my purse in the store, keeping my kids with me and close.  I scanned my environment for anything unusual.  We shopped and I had my girls keep their hands on the cart while we walked out to our car.  I put my girls in the car first and then put the bags in the car.  It was as we were getting in the car that we realized that I had a flat tire.  Well it wasn't flat flat but it was super super low.  I climbed in and one of my girls said to me, "well, what are you going to do?".  I had some options:

1. get out and change the tire.
2. call for back up help either from my husband or from someone else.
3. drive out of there to a safer place.

I weighed all my options and I chose to drive.  I figured that the tire didn't get flat like that while we were in the store and that I had driven on it on the way to the store so it would be fine for a mile or two until we could get to a safer place.  So I drove.  In the process though my husband happened to call me so I told him what was going on and to meet me at a service station in our community to help me out. 

This got me thinking a bit.  So often we try to prepare for the emergencies by having what we need with us or being able to handle the situation as it stands but we don't often think about the fact that we can often leave the situation and get out of the area.  For me the panic wasn't the flat tire but it was the unsafe area we were in.  We had already seen some "characters" in the Walmart so we knew what was around. I had all the equipment I needed and the skills to change the flat tire myself.  For me though the real situation was the place where we were.  I needed to get us out of there.  The tire would be fine but if I were to try to change the tire myself someone might want to come and "help" me and they may not like taking a "no thanks" for an answer.  They may also have wanted to take advantage of the situation for something not so good.  My best option was to leave, slowly and safely with me and the girls locked in the car and to get the car and the very low tire to a gas station in a safer area for either air or repair.

The evening turned out fine in the end.  I got the tire filled with air and my gas tank filled too.

We can often learn so much from these "little" situations if we just stop and think about them.  Always keep the option to just leave if you can as an option to consider in those type of situations.