Perfect Strangers

My seat mate on my trans-Atlantic flight from London Heathrow to Miami was asleep for the better part of the trip.  When the elderly, white-haired man in a green and grey tweed suit awoke, he rubbed his eyes, polished his two-inch thick glasses methodically, and turned to me.  "Well hello there, have we reached Hong Kong yet?" Realizing his clever joke, I returned a little giggle and reached my hand to his for an introduction.

I found out that his name was Arthur, and at his spry age of eighty-two, he was returning from a trip in Nice, France visiting some old friends.  Once he found out my interest in languages and traveling, he shared his background with me.  By the age of thirty, he was fluent in five languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. He later became a translator for the US military and many government projects.

Before departing the plane after an exhausting nine and a half hour trip, Arthur said, "It was lovely meeting a person who shares an affinity for languages.  I want you to know that I have been interpreting for over fifty years and I have absolutely loved every messy little moment of it. Every stumble in words and translation always led me closer to my goal and eventually my career. It is such a parallel to life. Remember that whenever you reach the stumbles in your path, think of it as a layover. You are nearly there."

After this, he handed me several of his vanilla and lemon creme cookies and waved goodbye to me at border control.

We all imagine things playing out a certain way only to find that our perfectly laid out plans were nothing but a dream. Going back to Germany turned out to be so much more than I could have ever hoped for.

Destinations are, after all, for the dead. It is not really a place to arrive at.  The journey does not end simply because you find a permanent place to live, have your dream career, or find that person you want to spend your life with. Life continues to evolve, inevitably.

Whenever I have felt "stuck", it was only because everything around me was changing--it was just my mind that remained behind.  Life propels. Catch up, or you miss it. It will not wait for you.

This simple plane trip "home" brought me clarity and peace.  It can sometimes be as simple as a smile or the people whose paths intersect yours.

I stand back and smirk sometimes when I realize the coincidence feels more like some elaborate plan. I see in those moments that more often than not, I am just a step, a breath, a word, a stranger, a new friend, and an opportunity away from meeting that "aha" destiny moment.

Even that is a step down the path of my extremely colorful, often treacherous, thoroughly confusing, yet full of love life. Why would I not enjoy the messy bits of it all too?

Now that I think about it, the layover has always been my favorite part anyway.

Thoroughly enjoying my London Heathrow layover