All is Calm, All is Bright...at the airport

When I think about my favorite part of traveling some may call me crazy. The airport? Lines, delays, cancellations and lost luggage may be the images that comes to mind when we think of traveling these days. But for me the airport holds this amazing energy that can only be found in a place where every possible emotion can be found in the same place. As soon as I enter the airport I feel this amazing sense of the unknown. Who will I meet? How full will my plane be? Will I find a place to charge my phone?

The first time I knew I was truly grown up was when I flew alone. No one was there to hold my hand and tell me where to go. It was up to me to make sure I got to the right gate at the right time. Up to me to decide how to plan my flight time. This is truly the one time you leave the world we know and experience a world  that is just about you, your book, and your nap.

For one moment in my busy day I stop and take in everything going on around me.  People are often so focused on where they are going they don't stop and appreciate where they are. I see the flight attendants getting off the plane, going to the gift shop and saying hi to the cashier they have established a relationship with. The mother with the child that has just learned to walk running around the airport after her young son, hoping this will tire him out for the flight but secretly wishing for a moment he was still; a newborn again where she could sit even just for 5 minutes. The nervous first time traveler constantly checking that they have their boarding pass, id, and personal items. The long distance relationship wishing time would speed by so they could be in their beloved arms again. The young soldier coming back from war relieved to be going home but wondering what life will be like in the world they once knew but now have to rediscover.

To me the airport is my safe place. The place where I truly can control what I have the power to be in awareness of such as, not losing things, getting there on time. Everything else like much of life is left up to fate. You just have to hope and pray your timing was correct and that the mechanics and weather of the day hold up. It's the place where no one knows who I am or where I come from. I can truly be whomever I want to be. It's one of the few places in the world that a random stranger can come up to you share their story and either through a sense of boredom or relief you respond. You find out you have a commonality of being on the same flight heading to the same destination and are two people sharing the same journey even it is only for an hour or two. You discuss things you would never tell your best friend. There is a certain familarity of going through the same motions everytime you fly. To me the airport is my first destination to explore before my final destination. I see the people of all different ages and wonder what their stories are.

It's also a place that kindness happens when you least expect it, from the airport security that called over the radio if you have left a necklace at security...I touch my neck, where is my favorite necklace? I run back..I think that is my necklace. What does it look like? Well..it's a tiny turtle..yea this is yours. To the time I almost missed my flight and another passanger let me go first at security.

It's also a place you test yourself. Can the 5  foot girl get her 20 lbs carryon into the luggage compartment singlehandly or will a nice young man offer his assistance? It's that feeling of what will happen, of not knowing my exact future that I love and live for and that feeling of accomplishment when I return to that exact location when I return home. It's not often that life forces us to stop, look, and absorb. The next time you travel don't complain about the challanges of security (such as the people that always insist on throwing my yogurt away, it's not a real liquid people!), dont whine about your flight being delayed 20 minutes, instead absorb all that around you. Appreciate that you have been given a gift. The gift to experience, explore, to stop even momentarily your all consuming crazy life and just....fly.