On the Other Side of the World

So…I got on the first plane. Nothing new until now, not the first flight between these two airports, nothing out of the ordinary.

Reaching my first stop, I had almost six hours to browse through this foreign airport that became so familiar to me, until my longest flight ever until now: a eleven-and-a-half hours flight over the ocean!

Finally, I got on this second plane, a huge Boeing 767 (I know, it might not be huge for other people, but for me it was the first time that I saw this kind of aircraft for real and not in the movies!) I was both excited and a little anxious, as I don’t like flying that much and my longest flight until then was about three to four hours.

I got comfortable (although I don’t know how sitting on a chair for almost twelve hours could be called comfortable) and fell asleep. And…woke up! And scared! The passenger behind me hit her seat belt against my chair and suddenly woke me up, not knowing who I was, where I was, what I was doing there, you know, the kind of wake up that leaves you highly disoriented! A panic attack started, feeling trapped inside a “can”, 13000 meters above the sea level, actually seeing the ocean below! I saw that we were only at the first have of the journey, and I realized that the plane can’t pull over for me to catch my breathe, nor I can call home…so I was on my own! In the air! Literally!

I started with my breathing exercises (thank you Universe for finding them out!) and applied all the relaxing techniques from different forms of meditation. And it got better…not the most relaxed person in the world, but definitely better and cooperating.

As I reached the second airport (still had one more flight to go), I found out that my baggage got lost. I felt sad and afraid at the same time, not knowing if I could find everything that I needed at my destination so that I could have a functional week. But there it was…lost. I was tired, angry, sad, frustrated as I went to the gates of my last flight. I felt betrayed by the world, the Universe, I needed sleep so badly that I actually fell asleep on the chair in the waiting area.

It took me a huge effort to get on the last plane, where I fell asleep again instantly before the take-off. I was in a “give-up” mood, not caring about anything anymore, too tired to be afraid of one more flight, I just let go. We stayed on the runway for almost two hours because we couldn’t take off due to a nasty storm. I was sleeping in a plane that would go through storm! 😀 Now this was something new for a control freak like me.

We finally took off and I was sleeping soundly. But at one point, I hit my head against the wall, hardly, waking me up for a few seconds. Just enough to take a look outside and see that the storm and Mother Nature were playing yo-yo with the plane! In other conditions I would have been scared, I would have had a high heart beat, but this time, I just surrendered. I even had like a dream in which the Universe would have to literally hit my head in a wake-up call that I should just go with the flow, give up, trust, relax. I started smiling as I finally understood the message.

A while ago I found out what would make me happy, where my place would be, what I should do to feel fulfilled… but, I also had a lot of fears: how was I going to make it? Who would I be? Would I still have friends? What would the other people say? What if I fail?

So the Universe had to send me on the other side of the world, take me out of my warm comfort zone, actually hit my head to shake me and wake me up, and above it all, make me loose the old baggage I had carried with me for so many years. All the unnecessary things that I thought I couldn’t do without, all the things I thought were a “must-have” for me, everything…lost. And all these to make me understand that now that I know, I can’t go back anymore, I have to move on, surrender to faith and the Universe, accept things I can’t change, take chances and understand that there are other ways to “survive” a situation, even if not comfortable for the moment!

I hope I have learnt my lesson and the Universe won’t be forced to send me to the South Pole or Mars to make me understand and finally take some actions!

Because, when the Universe says you have a purpose, you have a purpose! And it has all the possible ways to make you see and understand that, and most of all, stop running away from your true meaning and give up the fears! There is no need for fear when everything is perfect as is!