My Dad pops in every now and then, not always expected, but always welcome. Its his voice, sometimes firm, sometimes fatherly, sometimes humorous, always loving. I dont like to fly, in fact, I dread it. I watch weather reports, at both departing and arriving cities, weeks in advance. There have been numerous occasions when Ive been woken up by wind storms and my first thought is, I am so glad Im not flying today. Dad knew it and hed simultaneously tease yet encourage me. what makes you think youre so damn special that youre going to make the plane go down?! or do you really think the pilot wants to die today? were two of his famous pre-flight comments. Stern, but always loving. As we flew home from Denver, we made our way to the first full row which happened to be over the wing. Archer took up his spot at the window, Scott claimed the aisle so the middle seat was all mine. During take off Archer asked me to watch out the window with him, declaring, look at this Mom! As I squeezed my eyes closed and gripped the armrest I encouraged him to tell me all he was seeing because I was just fine where, and how, I was. It was a low-key enough flight; drinks, snacks, reading, coloring, a trip down the aisle, then the dreaded announcement- things are about to get bumpy, please return to your seat and make sure your seatbelts are securely fastened. UGH. Thankfully, the bumps werent too bad but they returned a bit as we slowly made our descent. Again, my knuckles whitened as I held the armrest and Archer looked with excitement out the window. As the wings did their thing Archer asked what is that noise? Suddenly my Dad was there- show him, kid, answer his questions. Open your eyes and dont be afraid. So I did. I leaned closer to Archer and pointed out how the wing was changing, and he watched fascinated as the large metal wing out his window slowly transformed. He asked a couple questions and I did my best to answer. Mostly though I took a deep breath, relaxed into the moment, said a prayer of gratitude and felt my heart fill with joy as once again my Dad was right where I needed him to be.
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 23:47:37 +0000
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