You may recognize the warning icon. It illuminates in vehicles when the tire
pressure is low and has fallen below the prescribed PSI. In recent years I have felt like it’s been
the bane of my existence. Ok, maybe that’s a
little dramatic; it’s just been a pain in the ass.
The first time I saw this icon pop up, I was driving our
new-to-us Toyota Sienna and it was an extremely cold winter day in January,
2009. We had only had the van for a
couple of months, so everything about the vehicle was still quite new to me,
including this warning light. I looked
it up in the manual, figured out what it meant, and then tried my best to
determine whether I really had an issue with one of the tires, or if it was
just an effect of the frigid winter temperatures.
It seemed like every couple of months, that warning light in
the Sienna would go on, even though a check of the tires showed they were
pretty close to where they needed to be.
Maybe a PSI of 33 instead of 35 … but just enough of a dip in pressure
to activate the signal. We had some service
work done on the Sienna a couple of weeks ago and the mechanic at the garage
told me that the diagnostic check of the van’s systems indicated everything was
in good working order except that the low tire pressure sensor needed to
be replaced. No doubt because the annoying
thing was lit up so much of the time.
I remember that very cold day in January of 2009 when that warning light first went on because my
husband was quite ill and in the hospital. I was balancing my time between being
with him at the hospital, being at home looking after the boys who were then aged
10, 12, 14 and 16, and being at work. It
was a stressful time, and I know I didn’t always manage the stress very well.
If people would come equipped with a warning light that
indicated low energy levels, tiredness, fatigue and emptiness, I believe mine
would often be lit up with blinking strobe lights, beeps and sirens,
because there are so many days that I feel like I am completely flat and
running on empty.
But I come by the tiredness and fatigue honestly
since I have had low iron levels for quite a number of years. The doctor called me the other day with the
results of my recent blood tests and she said “Good news! Your iron levels haven’t gone down!” My iron levels actually went up … one
point. My doctor and I joked that at
this rate, maybe my iron levels will be up to where they should be by the time I’m
80.
So we just traded in the Sienna for a newer, smaller used
vehicle. However within the first week
of having this wonderful new vehicle, the low tire pressure warning light has come on
twice! I know which tire is the
offending one and will need to have it checked out to make sure any slow leak
is fixed.
But once again, it feels like this low pressure warning
light is in my face as an ongoing issue.
I’m wondering if I need to acknowledge that warning light, not just to
check the air pressure in the tires of the vehicle, but also to conduct a personal inventory
of sorts to see whether I’m running on empty too.
When my husband was in the hospital, a friend came to visit and handed me a little silver heart.
It was a solid, tangible item that I could hold on to; to remind me that
we were loved and cared for. I would get
dressed in the morning to go to the hospital or to work and I put that little
silver heart in my pocket and throughout the day I would touch it and be
reminded that I wasn’t alone. During
those days, that little silver heart was a conduit to fill me with peace and calm, and a tangible reminder of the love of Jesus.
What kinds of things, activities and relationships do I fill
and re-fill myself with? Pumping air
into the car tires is an easy fix to turn that warning light off and remedy the
problem, but what do I pour into myself, and pour myself into, to boost my
life-levels? Where do I go? Who do I turn to?
