Airplanes and Wonder

Here’s what to expect :)

I will just tell you about my day, and, fortunately for both of us, I will have done some cool shit that I haven’t done before.

(I am posting my second morning in England. It is currently 1:22AM at home. My posts will be a day behind. So, this was written on the plane ride over. I'll write about yesterday before my proper English breakfast this morning).

Today was not one of those days. I woke up to my mom and Dani, was chauffeured to Atlanta by one of my favorite people, and took an eight and a half hour flight to a different country.

Here’s the cool thing: I hadn’t ACTUALLY done any of this before. I had done very similar things but not experienced these exact moments before.

I’m ridiculously thankful to have been invited to be a part of a book club with seriously fabulous women. We’re reading the book Trusting Change, and Friday’s discussion was all about connection, pausing, flowing, and being in wonder. Nothing like sitting in the middle seat on an international flight to give me plenty of opportunities to practice what we discussed!

I have had the privilege to travel overseas on someone else’s dime six times now. Three were evangelical Christian missions, but it’s a very different kind of mission this time. One thing I’ve learned through traveling (and it absolutely translates and is applicable to daily life): your smile is your social passport.

Something fell off my tray table, and the elderly woman next to me never met my eyes, only gave a sweet smile and kept eating. How precious? In that tiny moment, I was worried, and I was met with a smile.

At the ATL Airport, a woman knocked down the line divider strip thingy. She tried to fix it twice before making a silly face in exasperation at the situation and then looking up to meet my eyes, where I, too, was smiling/giggling.

How much better is this life if we giggle through it? Sure, some folks hate flying and allow that to color their experience, but I'd rather use my energy differently. I like the entire flying experience (even before I was chauffeured around in a wheelchair, I LOVED flying - partly because my mamo had her pilot’s license - and I got six lessons into mine, and partly because people are at their most vulnerable (including me).

A smile goes a l o n g way.

Example: for some odd reason I chose the middle seat on the flights there and back for this trip. I am a window seat girl! I have an elderly woman traveling with (who I can only guess are) her kids and grandkids. We don’t speak the same language, but I was able to ask her if I could scooch in before she got settled (we’re two hours in, and neither one of us has budged). Anyway, we have exchanged many smiles in our two hours together.

And, the dude to my right is a sweet, younger guy. I said, “Hi, Friend,” when he sat down. I got to pay my other neighbor's kindness forward when HE dropped something (except I just giggled because he worried for half a second and then shrugged to himself). And when he was trying to adjust his seatbelt and accidentally moved my blanket, he then tried to be sweet and move it back and touched my butt. Giggles. Then we went back to our little spaces. Spoiler: we became friends and I told him I wrote about him touching my butt, and we shared more smiles.

All of this to say, I love traveling outside my comfort zone with the ability to be all of me. I don’t talk to EVERY stranger, but I’m never going to pass up sharing a smile or few words with someone I feel drawn to! (Lord. Have. Mercy. I knew I was becoming my mother, but this may be the perfect piece of evidence. Damn. I have talked shit about her being friendly since childhood. Ha!!!! What a dumb thing to make fun of someone for.)

I wish I could insert an image of a megaphone with the word "INSECURITY" coming out of it.

Night!

JK, I’m back! I just made friends with my plane buddy, and he’s a Tolkien fanatic!!! Like, he reads the Lord of the Rings trilogy once a year. So, I got to gush about Gollum and asked him how many times he’s been able to nerd out about LOTR with a girl. He chuckled and said almost never. I then told him how I was so wrong about Tolkien’s writing thinking it was just for dudes. He felt seen, so my job on this plane is done.

He’s in charge of the Europe division for his work, so he travels A LOT. He said his favorite thing to do in other countries is go to the grocery stores and get snacks with labels he can't read and have his own snack party. Gahhhhh… effing adorable. I was able to share that my seniors would do that on every trip we took and film a whole vlog of the experience.

Well, here’s when he really sealed the plane friendship:

I had already told him my plan of waiting for him to go pee, and then I would go. (Tiny physical activities take a lot of planning and effort with you’re disabled) So, he said he was going, and I said I’d get ready, and he looked me in the eyes and said, “I believe in you,” and then went to pee. Now, tell me he’s not one of our people?!?!

Okay, I for real need to try to sleep. I have MAYBE three hours before we land.

And, I thought watching A Complete Unknown and the new Snow White would be the highlights of my flight! Left room for magic, and it happened! Cheers to wonder in the mundane!

Night, again!