Watch the signs

My aunt had a heart transplant while I was in college and since then she hasn’t traveled much.  I usually try to go visit her in Fayetteville, NC a couple times of year.  That heart is now 12 years old and declining rather quickly.   I planned a quick day trip to see her – out on Monday, back on Tuesday.

Monday morning I parked my car at work and my colleague dropped me off at SDF.  I had already printed out my boarding pass the day before and headed to the security line.  As I reached in my purse for the pass – it was not there.  Hmmmm.  No problem, I thought, I’ll just go to the ticket counter to print out another.

The US Airways lady at the desk asked where I was going.  Tap, tap, tap.  “Your Charlotte flight is cancelled.  And, so is your flight to Fayetteville.”  I ask why.  She says fog.   She puts me on a Delta flight two hours later. I call my colleague to turn back around and take me to the office for two hours to waste time.

Before leaving again I get the inclination to check the Delta flight online.  The 11:30am flight was now delayed until 12:05.  Not bad, EXCEPT that only gave me 12 minutes to make my connecting flight in ATL.  I called the Delta dude and told him what I discovered.  He said, we’ll you might make.  I kindly told him that I’m not about to fly to ATL for a flight that I might make, especially in the Atlanta airport!  He then graciously offered for me to wait in ATL for three hours for the next flight after that.  No gracias, senor.

I realized that it just wasn’t meant for me to fly on Monday.  I called US Airways and asked if I could just move my entire itinerary to Tuesday-Wednesday instead.  She said sure, made the changes and I felt much better.  I complimented her on her great customer service and asked to brag on her to her supervisor.

My trip was great.  My relatives were excited to see me. Sometimes we just need to follow our gut and go with our feelings.  Just because we want something, doesn’t mean that it’s good for us.  Following my feelings with flying was easy to do.  However, it’s much more difficult to do when it comes to matters of the heart.  We all say we want ‘signs’ to know what paths to follow in life – but when they are there, do we fully acknowledge them?

M.Y.  December 2009