WAKE UP!

I took a trip to Texas last week to visit my best friend, Ruth. I stepped out on a limb and bought my first plane tickets. This was a very big step for me personally. I've flown on a plan only once before and it was with the family of my boyfriend (at the time). All I had to do was follow them wherever they went, so of course I didn't learn much from that trip. This time I was flying all by myself. I did all the necessary research about how to navigate through an airport, what the protocol was, what not to bring, etc. Everything went really smooth except for a couple flight delays. I was very proud of myself for making it alone. I kept telling myself it was practice for all the international flights I am wanting to take in the next few years. This brings me to my first point of this story: do things that scare the crap out of you. It was very scary for me to spend all that money on plane tickets and to navigate through 3 different airports by myself. It was a big leap for me to leave my comfort zone and trust that God would get me where I needed to be. Now that I'm back home in my safe little bubble, I feel stronger than ever. I impressed myself once again. This year has been all about personal and spiritual growth for me and I am still going strong.

One thing I noticed on all my flights was how lax people were about flying. I understand there are many people who don't enjoy heights or the feeling of flying and so they choose to keep their window shades down, but I find it extremely unlikely that over half the people on the plane all feel this way. This is how it was on all four of my flights. Hardly anyone looked out the window. They were all sleeping or reading books or watching movies. I was astounded! The first flight I was on I was fortunate enough to have a window seat. At this point I had been up for over 24 hours and I was totally exhausted, but I had my face glued to the window the entire time. I wanted to sleep so badly but I could not miss what was happening. To be able to see God, the universe, from this angle was too important and sleep could come later. All I wanted to do at that moment was enjoy the view and say "thank you, thank you, thank you." I was soaking it up like a sponge to the point that my heart felt like it was too full for my chest. I could live up there in the clouds and never, ever take it for granted. That was why I was so floored when I saw all those people with their blinds shut. On my last flight I was in the middle seat. I opened the blind when I got to my seat so we could enjoy the view. The woman with the window seat finally joined us and settled in for sleep. It was early in the morning and the clouds were covering Houston. When we finally broke through the clouds, the sunrise was incredible. The clouds were huge and puffy and the sun was golden. It shone right into the woman's eyes and woke her up. She turned to me and asked if it was okay to close the blinds so she could sleep. I very seriously considered saying "Don't miss this" to her, but I am too polite and I didn't want to offend her, so I agreed. She shut it almost all the way closed except for a little sliver at the bottom. Let me tell you, I stared through that sliver of window the entire time trying to enjoy what I could of the sky. All I could think during these flights with these people was "WAKE UP!!!!! DON'T MISS THIS!!!" How can you be surround by the most incredible view and still want to watch a movie?! Do that when you get back on the ground. Read your book when you get on the ground. Sleep later! Right now you need to be awake to see this! So many people are dead inside because they don't look around. They may go outside, but they don't see the beauty of the sky or the trees or the water. They don't sit still and just listen to the wind and the birds. They don't take time to sit and feel the wind blow or the grass on their feet. So many people want to just keep their minds busy with nonsense and that's why they feel like something is missing. They're not enjoying the universe for what it is. Books and movies are wonderful, don't get me wrong- but we need to take time every day to connect to our source. This is what makes life worth living. This is what will put everything into perspective for you. My second point to this story is WAKE UP!

My third flight I was seated next to a middle-aged woman who was agitated about our delay. I could feel the bad vibes coming off her so I decided to put my headphones in and listen to music. She said many things about how stupid it was that we were delayed because of weather. Finally when we got off the ground and above the clouds, she decided to go to sleep. I found this really amusing. She specifically chose to spend time complaining about something that was out of our control and then when presented with something amazing, she sleeps. This is our society.

On my second flight that was leading me to my destination, it was delayed for almost two hours due to stormy weather. We had been sitting on the plane for almost an hour ready to take off and people were getting really angry. The pilot told us we were going to have to take a different route that would double our flight time. This almost sent everyone over the edge. Everyone was moaning and cursing the pilots. I believed it was happening exactly as it needed to be. I prayed that God would get us there safely and this delay was exactly the answer to my prayer. I said "thank you", laid my head back, closed my eyes, and played my music because I had faith it was going to work out perfectly. As soon as I did that, fifteen seconds later (I'm not kidding) the pilot announced we were clear for takeoff on our original route. Everyone was thrilled and I said thank you again. My third and final point to this story: let go. Everything is happening exactly as it should and there's nothing any of us can do to change it. The more you resist, the more trouble you make for yourself. You can choose to be angry that it's not going how you think it should be, or you can trust God and have peace of mind about literally everything that happens in your life.

I make it sound easy, but I'm definitely not perfect at these things. I'm still perfecting my thoughts and actions every day. I get angry when I have the same patient calling me every five minutes for pain medicine even though I told them it's not due for another three hours. I still get short with my family members. I still have negative thoughts. I still stick my foot in my mouth sometimes. The point is that I'm trying. It's easy to talk about it and much harder to keep yourself in check. If you're trying though, you should be proud. Congratulate yourself for even caring enough to better yourself. You're doing a great job, so don't be hard on yourself. With daily practice we can achieve anything and the little steps turn into many miles. I ended up having an awesome trip and feeling better about what I could handle. It's time we all take a leap of faith!