Going Home

I woke up in such a fantastic mood yesterday. I had fallen asleep after putting some patches on a tattered friendship and I was going home. As happy and excited as I started out, the stress of travel and not having finished my packing or laundry started to overwhelm me, and I had this feeling like my ride to the airport wasn't going to come through. I'd ordered some luggage and it hadn't come. 

Just before noon, I received a call from Delta saying that my 2:05 flight was delayed to 2:39. I was annoyed for a second, but it would give me more time to get my stuff in order. An hour later I recieved another call from Delta: my flight was further delayed and I would be missing my connection flight in Minneapolis. Stress turned to panic. My ride bailed on me. My roommate had come home early but it was due to illness and I definitely couldn't have her take me. I was going to have to drive myself to the airport and park my car there which is not an expense I was ready to pay for. I had no idea when I would be getting home because I had no idea when I'd be able to get another flight out of Minneapolis. My flight ended up being delayed another twenty minutes and I had to re-book completely, which I was able to do through the Delta app and was actually really easy.

Once I had booked my new flights from Jacksonville to Atlanta to San Francisco, things sort of fell into place. I had a time for when I would arrive in SFO. My luggage arrived in time for me to re-pack (I was using a bag that wasn't really a carry-on size). My roommate emerged from her room and said, "Tell your friend you don't need a ride anymore 'cause I can take you to the airport." I wasn't even going to tell her that I didn't have a ride because she looked awful and I didn't want to make her feel bad, but she appeared to be fine. She went out to run an errand and got a flat tire, which is never fun but if my flight had been on time I wouldn't have been able to loan her my car. Everything just seemed to work out really well. It was like God was saying, "Hey, I told you that you have to stop freaking out about everything. I've got this. My plan is better than yours." 3 hours later than expected, my flights ended up being pretty painless.

As the plane from Atlanta to San Francisco pulled away from the gate, I thought, "This is it: I'm really here, I'm really going to be home in a few hours." I thought of the stress of the first part of the day. When my flight had been delayed the second time, I had just wanted to curl up into a ball and give up, just not go. I thought of the 46 hours over three days it had taken me to drive to Jacksonville. And suddenly I was so overcome with gratitude to be sitting in that window seat on that aircraft, that I started crying. I thought of all the people I'm going to hug, the familiar sights I'll see, the books I had to leave behind that were waiting for me, and I just sat in awe of the fact that such a vessel could take me to the place I needed to be most in the world. I don't think I have ever been more grateful to be sitting anywhere in my entire life. As the plane took off and I felt the shift of weight in leaving the ground, it felt like God was physically carrying me to a place of love and rest. 

I had been watching "At World's End" when something made me want to look out the window and I'm so glad I did. Thousands of feet below me were The Rockies, covered in snow illuminated by the bright moonlight. As I built my own ice palace while singing "Let It Go" in my head and saw each lone bright light as a beacon of Gondor calling for aid, God was like, "Look! I made a thing!" The indescribable beauty I was viewing reminded me of something I needed as my heart ached for home, and that was to be reminded of why I left. There are so many beautiful, wonderful, miraculous things that I have yet to experience and explore and I want to see as much as humanly possible. If I never left Sonoma County, yes, I would see a lot of amazing things, but I would miss so many phenomenal things. 

A couple hours later I tackled my best friend to the ground where we continued to hug. It's fantastic to be home and I'm so thankful that I get to be, but when it's time to leave, which I know will be all too soon, I will remember looking out at those beautiful snow-covered mountains and remember that they are waiting for me to explore. Better still, I know that home will always be here when I'm weary or discouraged, and that God will take me where I need to go.