Musings from a plane ride

Reflections from a day spent in a small cylindrical container hurtling across Canada.

I guess I was in a reflective (and a tad anxious) mood as I left my family this morning and headed to the airport.  It seems odd to be all on my own and yet welcome in some ways - time to just be quiet. 

Somehow that just make the voices in my head a bit louder.

I love watching people in airports.....or anywhere really.....but there is a certain something about airports.

No one is there by accident.

No one just strolled in to Concourse A, Gate 4.

Everyone has a purpose, a story that brought them there.

I don't need to know what it is....the story that brought them there.....because I make up my own stories about why they are there.

I assign stories to my co-travellers as I watch them.

The Grandma's and Grandpas's - joyfully expectant of little ones to hug on soon, or teary eyed after another parting, many travelling to see their grandchildren graduate.

The students traveling home from University or College - hair a little ragged, clothes a little crumpled, maybe a little weary from too much studying (or partying?)

The Suits off to do deals - shoes shiny, jackets crisp, brandname carry-on.  Some confident, some anxious, some expectant, some resigned.

The RFH's (Returning From Hawaii) all sun kissed, flip-floped, aloha-ing......I try not to hate them. Especially when they whine about the weather.

The Conference go-ers and comers.....I spotted some going to the same conference as I am....overheard others talking about one just finished in Vancouver....people seeking knowledge and inspiration and connections.

The jet setters and snowbirds returning from or going on exotic vacations talking of beaches and golf and spas.

The budget travelers and backpackers clutching Lonely planet, wearing MEC pants and sensible shoes.

And all the others.....the artist who sat beside me and did a pen drawing of a covered bridge that was incredible, the little ones with too-big backpacks and floppy bunnies clutched tightly, the singles,the married, the tattooed and pierced, the old and disabled, the charming and grumpy the chatty and the silent....

Is the world in this plane with me?

~

I love flying over land in daylight.....that within seconds of take off I can see my Godsons now tiny house just east of the airport and blow him a kiss.

Seconds later I see Aberdeen Centre that looks like butterfly from above and immediately after I see my new daycare surrounded by construction and in a split second all the hopes and dreams I have for it fill my heart and mind.

I see Cambie Secondary where my husband is teaching his last day of classes there....ever....a happy / sad day for him and I say a quick prayer over him.

Before my other new daycare comes into view we are swallowed into the clouds and I feel truly cast off from my life, my town, my family and settle in for the flight.

I chose a window seat in the hopes of seeing something of this great land on this flight across it but we left Vancouver in rain and low cloud.  Shortly before the Okanagan the cloud started to break-up and for the rest of the flight I was blessed with vistas of rugged snow capped mountains and deep lush valleys and full (some flooding) rivers, glacial lakes, winding roads.  Those mountains fill me with awe.  I have seen them from the road but I love seeing them from up here, seeing into gorges and crevasses one has ever been....this is quintessential Canadian landscape.

And suddenly we are over the mountains and the land rolls out flat and forever.......now carved up into quilt squares of farms scattered about...and then sparse sub-divisions, then more dense suburbs, the a City springs up along a river or at a crossroads.....and then back to the rolling, golden and green quilt squares......the prairies seem never ending.  I want to stand on this part of Canada one day and look up at the sky but for now I love the view from up here.  And then the trees and the lakes.... the great lakes that look like oceans... Superior, Michigan and Huron.....and back to pastoral order with groves of trees, tracks for race horses, meandering rivers.

This is a vast and magnificent land......I will drive across it one day.....today it was a privilege and a blessing to observe it from on high (and I realise southern Ontario is only 2/3 of the way across).

It's been an odd but interesting day.  Alone but not lonely.  Separated from those I love by many miles but keeping them close in my heart.

Ready for the adventure that begins tomorrow.