ANGELS AND GRATITUDE

I had finished my convention in Manchester, England, and was ready to begin the long journey home. I was exhausted. I had arrived Friday and worked all day Saturday and Sunday.

It was Monday, and the jet lag was killing me. I had almost twenty hours ahead of me to get home, with an extremely tight connection in New York. I did my claims for the day, opened and balanced everything, directed a safe, on time flight, and ended with, “Now, Universe, please conspire to help me create this as easy, on time, and with lots of love along the way.”

I started the hour drive with my new good friend, Leigh, who had picked me up and taken care of me most of the weekend. His beautiful wife helped me into the terminal and got me checked in. I gave them both a hug, and acknowledged they were my angels who had made the weekend so much better.

As I boarded the plane, I found my very cramped seat right by the very busy galley. Thank God for ear plugs, I thought. And then I decided to step forward and ask for what I needed to relieve the stress of worry over my upcoming connection. I went to our stewardess. “Is there any way you could help me de-plane before the first class and priority? I have a really tight connection.”

She smiled, said she would check with her superior, and get back to me. Minutes later, the head stewardess approached me with a smile. “We have a lot of room in priority. Let me seat you there and you can de-plane immediately.” Wow, I was upgraded to a larger, quieter seat (thank you Universe!), and would be closer to making my connection. I stopped, again, to acknowledge my angels in the very human form of Virgin Atlantic Stewardesses. I acknowledged it to them, too.

As I left the aircraft, I flew to customs. There was a lane specifically for “quick-check.” A lovely gentleman checked my boarding pass. “Come with me. I’ll walk you all the way to your next security check.” He whisked me up to a customs guard, retrieved my bags, loaded them for me, and took me to the front of the TSA pre-check line for my last flight. I insisted he take the offered tip, and thanked him for being one of my angels on this long journey. I arrived at the gate with twenty minutes to spare.

The rest of the trip was effortless. Thank God for movies that pass the time.

I was especially aware of being grateful because of something I got to while I was doing the convention. It had been an extremely successful day financially. But it didn’t feeeeeeeeeeeeel like I was in the experience of gratitude. Weird.

I KNEW I was grateful, but I couldn’t ACCESS the feeling. And you know why? I wasn’t allowing myself to experience it “because I was afraid I would loose it/someone would take it away.”

This made sooooo much sense in my life. And I am positive it applies to us all. If we can’t/aren’t joyously celebrating our creations, we are definitely not doing the hokey-pokey and putting our whole selves in with the Universal dance. The fear of “it going away/not happening” creates us being switched and keeps us from the giddy experience of gratitude.

xo