Up, up and away!

Morning arrived early---3AM for me, a feeble attempt to get onto a new time zone. I used to love air travel, now it's something to be endured. Long security lines, and somehow I always get behind someone who hasn't put all their liquids/gels into a zip-lock bag and has to dig them out of everywhere. Oh, well.....

The quick stop for coffee in the airport was fun because my friend, Jordan, was flying out at the same time, so Jo and I had coffee with him. Shout out to Jordan! What a nice surprise! We talked about how there is no coincidence, only grace.

And the other bit of grace this morning is that Alaska Airlines is offering FREE WiFi on domestic flights through the month of July---so I'm writing this at 30,000 feet!

I'm remembering my first trans-Atlantic flight in 1986---I was flying to Ireland and as we were taking off, just about everyone on the plane took out their rosaries and rattled them until we were up in the air. Once we were airborne, the rosaries went back to wherever they had come from, only to return again for the landing. It seemed as though it was timed, and it seemed as though the whole plane prayed us up and then down again. It felt comforting to me, especially since I had never been on a flight that lasted more than an hour prior to this. I didn't notice any rosaries on this flight.

Several years ago, I heard Sr. Jose Hobday speak on the topic of prayer (Sr. Jose has since died, God bless her!). She spoke about how she prayed on all the flights she used to take. She said that when the plane is lifting into the air, she would pray that, whatever happened, she would go to God---and as the plane was landing, she would pray the same thing.

I stole her idea, and that's what I've done ever since. I pray that as the plane rises, I go to God, as the plane descends, I go to God.