I left Salt Lake City, Utah last Wednesday, April 28 and took a flight back to Boston, MA, which included a layover in Dallas Fort Worth, Texas.
The first leg of my flight took off about fifteen minutes after it should have, but I didn’t think twice about it affecting my connecting flight because the second leg was scheduled to take off two hours after the first leg’s landing time. Long story short, Dallas Fort Worth was experiencing thunderstorms, so because of the bad weather, we circled in the air for over an hour. By the time we landed and I got off the plane, l had missed my connecting flight to Boston.
As one does, I headed to the customer service desk and stood in line for about forty minutes waiting to talk to a representative who could book another flight home for me. The representative put me on standby for a 5PM flight to Boston. That sounded all good and dandy until I found out the flight was full and there were thirteen people ahead of me waiting to see if they could get on the flight. Immediately I thought, “Well, it looks like I’ll be spending the night in Dallas Fort Worth.”
Anyway, I made my way to terminal C to loiter around “my” gate. I kept telling myself there was no way I was getting on the flight and that I should just head to customer service to figure out plan b. For some reason that voice was overshadowed by another one telling me to just wait and see. So, I waited.
After almost every group had boarded the plane, one of the last people scanned his boarding pass, and as he crossed in front of me, I noticed the back of his shirt said “Taylor Island”. I have no idea why, but in that moment I thought, “That’s my sign. I’m going to get on the plane.”
Within minutes I hear my name being called on the intercom followed by “please come to the front of gate C16”. Miraculously, I had been moved up to number three on the waiting list and had gotten a designated seat. I was really surprised, to say the least. I’m used to having hiccups in my traveling experiences, so I was fully prepared to spend my night in a hotel and get put on a flight out the next day. But this time, I was the lucky one.
Being 4’11”, I sometimes struggle with putting my carry-on in the overhead compartment. Thankfully, the man who was sitting aisle-side in my row asked if I needed assistance and kindly got up out of his seat to place my luggage in the bin. He was friendly from the get-go.
He continued chatting with me from that moment onward. He asked about my travels in SLC, where I was from, why I was going home— all the normal questions a fellow plane companion may feel inclined to ask. He then asked when my birthday was, and when I told him, he said, “I ask because you feel like you have Aries energy, so I was just curious to know when your birthday was.”
I wouldn’t classify that question as a “normal” one a stranger randomly asks, so that was my first inkling that this man wasn’t just a “normal” person I was meeting.
He then went on to talk about Henry David Thoreau, which again, isn’t a normal topic of conversation on a plane, but I’m all ears when it comes to talking about consciousness and simple living. I wondered what compelled this man to talk about someone who— I have only recently learned— had a mind I so deeply resonate with and connect to. It felt almost like this man could read me without knowing anything about me.
Right now, I’m currently reading “The Untethered Soul”, which I am very late in getting around to, but nonetheless, I’m reading it. The man had noticed what I was reading and sparked up a conversation about the novel. I had mentioned that I love transformational books (I avoid using the term “self-help books” because it feels cheesy), and we talked about why we love them.
The flight was about three and a half hours, so naturally, I dozed off during some of it. But more accurately, I wasn’t actually asleep... or so I think. It was this weird in-between sleep I had never experienced before. I’m sure you know what it feels like to close your eyes and think your mind is simply just wandering, when all of sudden, you trip in your dream and your body jolts you awake. You know that feeling, right? The one where you’re like, “Wait I wasn’t even asleep yet. How did that happen?” (Let it be known you are indeed sleeping when this happens!)
Well, this wasn’t like that. It wasn’t deep sleep; I wasn’t awake, either. It almost felt like the time I was sedated back in the summer of fifth grade. I broke my wrist, and a doctor had to reset my growth plate. I remember they told me I would enter a deep sleep and could dream about whatever I wanted to. Seconds later, I was dreaming about lying on a stretcher while being carted through the hallways of a hospital. I knew I was dreaming while it was happening, but I also felt like it was real. When I woke up, I told the nurses my dream, and they were like, “Hmm, that’s weird— that actually happened.”
Regardless, this sleep felt like that sedation except my veins were medication free. Each time I came to, I was a little frazzled. I didn’t understand what consciousness I was entering. I’ve slept on planes too many times to count, and none of them had ever felt like that. No sleep that I’ve ever gotten had felt like that, actually.
I’m still not sure what I was experiencing, but I know that it was significant. For what reason? Still haven’t figured that one out.
Towards the end of the flight, after a long period of silence and “sleeping”, the man sitting next to me, out of the blue, asked, “Do you have any pets?”
If there is one thing to know about me it’s that my dog Rosie is my entire world. I have a bond with her unlike anything I’ve experienced, and I am sure that she was purposely placed in my life. Also, I hadn’t seen Rosie in four months, so I was beyond excited to reunite with her when I landed. I answered, “Yes, I have a dog, and I love her more than life.”
He proceeded to tell me he rescued two cats whom he named “Angel” and “Miracle”. He said that he thinks of them as his children and knows that they rescued him. I could not relate to that more. I thought, “This is someone who just gets it.”
All this goes to say, I was meant to meet his man. I am sure of it. I missed my connecting flight, got onto the 5PM flight by the grace of God, and sat right next to him on a packed plane. I don’t think all of that was coincidental, if you ask me. I am not sure why I was supposed to meet him, but something tells me that he was placed on my path for a good reason.
Before parting ways, the man handed me his business card. He happens to be a public speaker, a writer, an author, and a teacher— a man of service, you could say. I was impressed by his humbleness given he saved detailing all of his accomplishments for the end of our interaction.
So, this is just me saying that it is rather easy to get entrenched in the negatives when they abundantly appear. I could have been stressed and frustrated that I missed my connecting flight to Boston from Dallas Fort Worth, but because I’m familiar with a thing or two going wrong during my travels, I was calm and reassured that everything happens for a reason.
Try to be patient with yourself and with situations that you deem less than ideal. You never know who you’re going to meet, what is going to happen, or where you’re going to find yourself when you get rerouted.
At the very end of the flight, right before deplaning, the man turned to me and said, “Oh, and while you were sleeping, a man walked by and the back of his shirt said ‘Taylor Island’. You should check that out.”
All I’ll say is... when the universe sends you a sign, trust it.
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