Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Life is like an Airport

This morning as Rebecca and I sat in the Dallas Airport waiting to catch our flight to CA, we could see out on the airport gate area. There were dozens of gates for the planes to unload and load passengers at. On the ground there were driving lanes for the gas trucks, food trucks, luggage carriers and all the other support vehicles that were needed to keep the airport running. Above us was the train that took passengers from one terminal area to the other. There were 4 terminals for American Airlines at the airport, all far enough away from each other that a train was needed to get you to your next gate quickly.
As we sat and watched the movement outside I started thinking about my life. One of my resolutions was to have less in my life. Less "stuff" in my house (de-cluttering), less activities in my life, and a calmer house-less craziness with the kids.

There were times when 10 or more vehicles were driving around. Sometimes there were so many vehicles that they had to drive around each other to avoid a crash. Then there would be a few minutes where no vehicles were driving. And the train above was on time every 2 minutes going past. A plane even got into the mix driving through the terminal to the runway.
I started thinking that those vehicles were like my life. There are times where so many things are going on, that I have to quickly re-arrange something so I don't have overlapping activities -to avoid a crash. There are times when things are quiet and I can sit a relax, then a major event happens like the plane going through the middle. The train above was the things that have to happen on a schedule-meals, laundry, school, work, baths and sleeping. The things that need to happen on a schedule no matter what else is going on.
When we were on the plane and going out to the runway, there was an "emergency road" next to it. There are times I feel like I need to get onto the emergency road just to escape from the commotion and take a quick break before it get too overwhelming.
If you think about all those vehicles-the ones with luggage have to get from one plane to the next on time to get the luggage on the plane that the passenger it belongs to is on. It's like that in my life, if I don't get something where it needs to be on time, it gets forgotten and then when we get there we are left srambling. (This is why I pack things the night before and put them in the van to be ready.)
After watching all this movement it made me want to work harder to have less in my life. To have more of those times when there are no vehicles going so I can sit back and enjoy my children more and be stressed less.

2 comments:

Janessa said...

That was deep. Glad you were able to have some moments of deep comtemplation at the airport. Good advice, thanks for passing it along. I'm excited to hear more about your trip. It would have been fun to see you while you were in Dallas. Too bad it wasn't for longer.

Lisa M said...

Did you know we live in Texas? We are about 15- 20 mins. from the DFW airport.