Photo Credit: Me
While traveling this morning for a work trip, the connecting fight to my final location was delayed for a few minutes. I kept getting emails and updates on my phone with gate and time changes. If you have ever traveled through the Dallas Fort Worth Texas Airport you know that in order to get to the other terminals you have to catch the sky train. I was nervous that I was going to miss my flight. I hopped on the sky train and impatiently arrived to my next gate. There were people standing around, there were people at the ticket counter and the doors were closed where you board the plane. I saw an attendant, walked up to him and asked him if I missed the flight. He asked me where i was going and when I told him the location he said “ No, you are fine. There is a 20 minute delay”. I was relived, I had time to grab a hot chocolate from Starbucks. As I was walking away I overheard someone say, we have been delayed for 13 hours. Here I was asking about a 35 minute delay and there were people that had been delays or half a day or more. I quietly thanked God for not missing my flight and begin chatting with a couple of my old coworkers that i ran into while waiting for the flight to board.
Now that I am in the air heading to Fort Walton Beach, FL, I have time to truly reflect on that situation. Here is what I got from the experience.
1. Preparation didn’t matter. I woke up early for this flight. When I say early, I mean I woke up at 230 to make sure I was up, that I had everything for the trip and that I was at the airport on time. Life is the same way, no matter how hard you try to prepare for life some things just are not within your control.
2. Go at your own pace. The people that were in the the same situation as me were running over each other to get off the plane for their next flight. I knew that I had to be there by a certain time so I made sure that I got there but at my pace. I did not feel the need to run over anyone or run through the airport. To me as long as I got there before the gate closed I was getting on the plane. Sometimes we feel like we need to “run” as fast as everyone else, run over people or take a shortcut. To be honest sometimes you just need to go at your own pace just make sure your pace is consistent. You will get there.
3. The Delay was just that…a delay. My flight delay was not a cancellation. I was going to get to Fort Walton Beach as planned just a little later than expected. In life we need to look at delays as delays and not cancellations. Just because we don’t make it to where we want to be personally for professionally by the time we think we should does not mean that we have to start all over and try again. It simply means that the timing isn’t right and when it is we will arrive to our destination at our appointed time.
Sis, Today I want you to sit back and look at your itinerary. You know where you are leaving from and where your final destination is, don’t worry so much about the delay or the extended layover. They are a part of your travel plan to get you there. You may arrive a little late. You may miss what you think is your connecting flight but the pilot (God) will get you to your final destination.
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