Airport Musings

Sunday’s Summary 

Writing Sunday’s Summary from a plane is a strange sort of occurrence … not something that happens often, but something I’d like to encourage to happen for more frequently.

Whew! What a week. Still hungover on words from Residency, I don’t know that I was really functioning properly on Monday and Tuesday. When I woke up Wednesday morning and realized I was leaving for Germany, my mind sort of went into overdrive. For the first time in a long time, I hadn’t planned out exactly what I was going to pack, to take, or what my expectations for the trip were going to be … I knew I had a certain number of tasks to complete before I left for the airport, and that a few of those included preparations for my trip.

So I had to run to Meijer for some last minute purchases for Efed … and I had a slight moment of o snap, I’m so not ready to leave the country. I was sitting in my driveway letting Loretta warm up, reviewing all of the things I needed to accomplish in the next two hours. After I’d had a mini-meltdown, I realized that stressing about the items on my to-do list wasn’t going to do shit except make me more anxious. So I did what any reasonable person in my situation would do – I cranked the tunes, and opened all the windows, and drove to the market aiming to find a renewed sense of purpose.

Okay, maybe I didn’t discover my life path at Meijer in Hyde Park, but I did realize that situations are based on expectations. Instead of walking into the store frazzled, I made a point to smile (like real smile with teeth and all) to everyone I saw. I stopped and chatted with the Starbucks girl about holiday stuff and her kids (I’ve never met her in my life, but it seemed like she wanted to tell me a story, so I obliged). I said Good Morning to the store clerks.

All of that effort probably took an extra five seconds on my part, did nothing to delay the master schedule of the day, and everything to set the tone for my trip to Deutchland. I could have been salty and stressed about not being prepared, because I could have done that Meijer trip earlier in the week, but I didn’t, so there was no sense in sweating it.

Maybe this lesson is all part of the ever changing fabric of my approach on life … instead of trying intensely to control every single thing in my life, I am shown repeatedly that it makes more sense to be flexible, smiling, and inviting.