rechelle's lifelyrics

I’ve been traveling this week. Since my middle daughter and her husband moved to Tennessee, I’ve taken several trips by myself and a couple with my husband to spend time with them in Chattanooga. This time I flew to Arizona first so I could spend a couple of days with my Aunt.

Getting around in airports and flying by myself has not been terrible, but I have noticed I don’t handle turbulence well at all. I was feeling fairly nervous about the flight from Phoenix to Detroit because the memory of the turbulence getting into Phoenix from Portland was fresh in my mind. The man sitting next to me struck up some conversation and asked if flying makes me anxious. His son is a pilot for a private plane, so he has had lots of opportunity to fly on big and small planes. He talked about a time when they were on a private jet with 6 people. They were flying on a beautiful, clear day, and having some lunch. All of the sudden, the plane dropped and their salads became airborne. When I asked if anyone freaked out, he said, “No, we just picked up the food mess and went back to eating our meal that was still intact. We were all very experienced flyers.”

Hmmm…

We went back to listening to the media in our headphones for quite some time. I kept thinking about how normal turbulence is to people who fly all the time, like pilots or the man sitting next to me. It was really helpful to think about those 6 people being so nonchalant about something that sounded so dramatic. Finally I was able to thank him for telling me that story. I told him it was very helpful to me. He said, “You know, going through turbulence is a lot like being on a boat in the ocean…”

Even though I don’t relish the idea of going through turbulence again, I have some new perspective that will help me endure it with a better frame of mind. I don’t choose to do things like rollercoaster rides because I don’t like that feeling, but I’m going to continue to get on airplanes for travel. I’m grateful for the man on the plane who gave me some new tools for coping with turbulence.