Sunday evening, Dec.21^st, 8:30pm:

Sitting in the airport in Dallas, I’m surrounded by what has become part of the normal ‘sounds of the season’ for me since I moved away from home. Chatter, flight announcements, the score of the local football game, passengers bantering back and forth with the ticket personnel about delayed flights…yada yada yada. I’ve always liked to fly. When I was little I would jump at the chance to go with my parents to pick someone up or see someone off at the airport. I think I just always liked the thought of going somewhere. I wanted to go somewhere.  Now that I am somewhere, or somewhere else I should say, I have lost a little of the excitement I had before, but still enjoy walking by myself through the masses of people with their different colored bags and watching cities get smaller and smaller outside of the little window.

It was a little bit after Christmas 5 years ago when I moved to Nashville to start school. The day before I was supposed to fly out, we got snowed and iced in and my flight was cancelled like 15 times. Portland doesn’t usually get very much snow so it was an unexpected (and unwelcome on my part) storm. I had been waiting so long to move to Nashville, and it felt like the weather was plotting against me to stomp on my dreams! A little dramatic I know. After a couple days of eating soup and checking the flight status every half hour, we were finally able to get to the airport. The trip that was supposed to give me several days to get settled in and sight see before school started, turned into me finally getting to Nashville with only one day to find my dorm before classes started and my mom had to turn around and fly home. What a way to start out.

Almost every year since then, when I’ve gone home for Christmas, we have had some sort of weather difficulty getting to and from the airport. In a weird way, it kind of serves as a little reminder of that first trip when I moved to Nashville and how far I’ve come. It’s become part of my Holiday season, part of Christmas. Fly and reflect. Today is no different.  My flight is delayed about an hour and a half and dad is at home right now getting the chains put on the car so they’ll be able to make it to the airport to get me. Yup, every year the same thing. But this year I don’t have the frantic feeling I did five years ago. This year I am enjoying my extra time with the traveling people. I feel satisfied that I’ve had a busy and full year of music and work and friends and I’m ready to get home and spend time in my home town with my home people. Yeah a little delay is no biggie. Fly and reflect. I am blessed.