Dear Natalie drove me to the airport this morning in the midst of all the other things she does for so many people. So now, I sit here, waiting for my first flight that will take me to meet up with the other four journeyers...I remember the very first time that I flew. I was 17, flying from BWI in Baltimore to Corpus Christi, TX as a Navy ROTC midshipman. It was a terribly dark summer day, pouring rain by the buckets on the ground in Maryland. It probably was a bumpy ride up through the clouds, I don't remember that so much. What I remember, is coming out on top of the clouds into the glorious, incredible sunshine on top of the white, fluffy cumulus clouds below - so ethereal, heavenly, and peaceful! It was wildly surreal and completely unexpected, compared to the world I had just left. Here was this totally glorious world coexisting alongside the darkness that I had just left. I have reminded myself, on those dark days ever since, of the sunshine that is just on the other side of those clouds. Perhaps it is sort of like Jesus telling us that the Kingdom of God is all around us, but we only sometimes get glimpses of it. Most of the time, we see the rain and the storm, not the fabulous light of the sun (Son?) bouncing off of the fluffiness of the lighter-than-air, brilliantly glorious clouds.
Later on, several years after that first flight, there was an eleven year span of time when I didn't fly because I was terrified of it, probably for a variety of reasons. Which was a little ironic, or perhaps terribly fitting, depending on your perspective, given that I was an aircraft maintenance officer in the Navy. Eventually, I decided that I didn' want my life to be ruled by such seemingly irrational fears. I was giving up too much. So, tentatively, and with the help of a medication or two, I started flying again. My first trip was a trip back to England. I've traveled a number of times since then. I´m really glad that I didn´t allow the fear to win!
A good flight from Savannah to Atlanta. Arriving in Atlanta, I checked to see if Mary or Stella had already arrived, which they hadn´t, but they did soon after. Here they are pictured, with Mary on the right, and Stella on the left. Then I got to meet Lexi and Josh. They'll be in later pictures! We went to get something to eat and drink as we waited for the flight. We returned in what we thought was plenty of time, only to find that they were already beginning to board, forty minutes before the flight was due to leave.
As Mary, Lexi and Josh were on buddy passes, we watched the standby list anxiously as their names crept slowly upward. Stella and I boarded when our turn came. Do you think they could possibly design any less space to shoehorn people into? At first, all five of us got on, then, it became apparent that Delta had significantly overbooked the flight so Josh and Lexi had to get back off and didn´t make the flight. To date, they are still trying to get over here and meet up with us. Meanwhile, we settled into a long, sleepless flight!
