Waiting to Fly
I love airports. Airports are gateways to the different corners of our planet, and I love walking through them. These gateways carry feelings of adventure and discovery for me. Transiting through airports and catching connections have been fairly easy for me, with only a few exceptions.
I am okay with flight delays as long as their durations are known and limited. I can easily make due if I know there's a scheduled wait time between flights. I can buy a meal, find a seat, read a book, listen to a podcast, or enjoy a coffee. I'll wait, knowing that I'll soon be able to fly to my next destination. I can endure minor delays.
Life doesn't always give us defined waiting times. Life includes illness, job instability, tragedy, loss, and grief. Some phases of life can feel like an extended stay in a lonely airport. The kind of stay where your phone is drained of its battery life, you can’t find a comfortable seat, and are you’re uncomfortable in your smelly clothes. You keep checking the departures board, looking for updates, only to see that nothing has changed.
There have been times when I've felt stalled in my life and my career. There's also been times when everything seems to happen at once. A new friend of mine reminded me recently of a quote that says, "There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen."*
That has certainly been my experience. The “decades where nothing happens” can be tough.
Looking back at the times in my life when things have felt slow, I've always been surprised to learn that time has allowed me the opportunity to consider new possibilities. Extended wait times allowed me to ask questions like, "Is there another route I can take to get to my destination?" or "Would I like to go in a different direction?" These helpful questions are always worth asking if you’re stalled.
I would add this: keep your travel plans flexible but keep your values intact. Keep what’s important in your life, but be open to new possibilities.
Anyway…Thanks for reading, friend. I hope you’re ok and you’re moving well through life. If you’re not, hang in there and be patient; you will fly soon enough.
-Jordan
*The quote’s from from Lenin, Vladimir,