Up In The Air

 

First of all I hope everyone had a wonderful summer and is safe and sane during these uncertain times... Since June I've learned much about myself, other people and life and living, keeping promises and the meaning of true friendship... all that aside I can't believe it's been five years since I started this project on 8, September 2015... on one hand the time has flown by quickly and on the other hand for the last two to four years in particular it's been painfully slow at times... but mostly steady. Before I say anything I want to say thank you to everyone who has been reading from the start and to those of you who have joined along the way...

And I would like to give special thank you and a virtual hug and kiss to everyone who has reached out to us by telephone and text and e-mail and USPS during this difficult time of feeling isolated  and alone...between being locked down, quarantined  and  dealing with everything else... it has meant the world to us.

Life has brought many changes and twists and turns since 2009... I was traveling and spent about 80% of my time away from home and logged about 100K miles every year for about seven or eight years (mostly on United) but I saw a couple of movies that  year and it completely changed the game for me... but I'll get back to this in a bit...

I have spent most of my life up in the air for one reason or another...

The thing all these flights had in common was I always knew where and when I was going  to be landing... one of the things I learned somewhere between take off and landing was that happiness is not a destination but  the manner in which you travel along the way... and maybe most importantly is that everyone should feel like tomorrow is more than just another day.

I was heading to the airport one day late in 2008 and was going to be missing my anniversary and a few holiday parties with friends... and I got to thinking that I did not have a million days left in life to make up for all the things I was missing and started to formulate a strategy  to take control of my life and what is most important... in spring I saw a movie called "Up" and in late fall  another named "Up In The Air" and they  both had a  very profound and impact on my life and the decisions I ended up making subsequently...

"Up" is essentially the story about two young lovers who find they have the same dreams... and they grow up and live their life and plan their plans around their dreams... but life ends of getting in the way... if you have not seen the movie I'm not giving anything away... except when his wife dies he decides to fly away to the the place they dreamed of and planned their life around... he does not count on a stow-away on the journey to Paradise Falls... and what happens and what they discover you will have to find out for yourself... but the central theme like any good plot is that we are all looking for meaning in our lives...

... As for "Up In The Air"... George Clooney aside... I was already living that life in a more humane manner but the difference was his character did not want a life and a family... he liked his life to be different destinations and up in the air...and I did not and made some significant sacrifices to have a family and a life... but whatever I lost was worth it in what I found with the love of my life and the journey we started  that year... Change is daunting but sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith....

As I said I learned a lot myself and the world and other people this past summer... and it's really been a mixed bag and I know that you sometimes have to swallow the bitter pills in order to taste the  sweet but this has been the year that has brought lessons about life and living and  death and dying and almost everything in between. But the summer and the year have been a wake up call not just to us but that it's long overdue for everyone in the world that it's time for change.

One thing I learned in the last year (I'm sorry that I did not know this sooner)... you should always taste your own words before you spit them out because if you consider them very carefully your words can be the stars in someones life and your own, or stains...either way they are how you will be remembered by them in the future.

So with summer ending we have found ourselves in the in-between moments of life that are often uncomfortable because the past does not  quite fit anymore and the blueprints to the future have not unfolded yet...Right now our life and some of it's complicated details are all up in the air... and we don't know when and where we are going to land... so I'm going to be on a bit of a hiatus until we get our life more organized and grounded... So if you have not already done so it might be an excellent time for you to read back in the archives of the what I've shared here in the last five years (a friend of mine once told me he read it all over a long weekend)... oh and one more thing... with everything going on in the world right now I think that it's more important than ever to practice kindness in the way we speak to and treat ourselves and others... because we are all going through a difficult time right now... but I will leave you with this until next time... The first thing I say to myself every morning and the last thing every night is... 

I still don't know how... but if you tune in and make the most of your powers of observation... the world offers new answers and questions every single day... but you need to be aware of the sometimes subtle messages in the words of the waves and the whispers in the wind... once I found an answer listening to the sound of snow blowing across the windows on a quiet drive ... but sometimes it's more obvious if you know how to read the handwriting on the wall...

I know better than anyone else I know that you can't go back and change the beginning ... but you can start where you are now and change the ending...So stay safe for now but keep reaching for the stars!