Seriously. The timing was poetic, in a way. I had just sent out a holiday e-mail message with photos to friends and family, and enjoyed a final send-off phone call with Mom and Dad. So now was the right time to lose my phone.
After a hasty run through the restroom where I last had it, and then a triple-check of the last lounge seat I was positioned in prior to lining up at the gate, I surrendered. I was buying that new phone sooner than I thought. (Privileged, luxurious problem to have, I know.) As I boarded the plane, I felt the sensation of my smile lifting my face, now ready to pay attention.
The universe was swiping my phone out of my hands vis a vis a moment of absent-mindedness, and requiring me to get present, dive into my head and heart, and center on this fabulous adventure ahead, called India. Beginning with a 16-hour non-stop flight.
As an exhausted veteran of the 10-hour work day (who is trying to kick this habit, by the way), and a lover of all my “i” stuff, I know my journey ahead is to let go, embrace present living, and lean on the reality that the texts and e-mail accounts will light up after I return. I appreciate the practice of watching the digital conduits of my day disintegrate while I wander the globe.
Upon boarding the plane and heading to my seat in the 41st row, I immediately loved the uniqueness of my white face among the sea of my fellow mostly-Indian passengers, as well as the sitar music in the background. Virgin Airlines has lounge music with a heavy base and purple mood lighting; Air India has sitar music, fluorescent lighting and brown silk pillows in first class. But it doesn’t have WiFi, nor does it have power outlets. Again, the universe was testing me.
Turns out it doesn’t have a functioning entertainment system at my seat either.
So no iPhone, no movies, no headphones, no music, for 16 hours. I was left with Gloria Steinem’s hardcover book (picked up from an amazing event she did with Cheryl Strayed last month – love!), my iPad with limited power, my head and my heart to keep me company.
And the time flew by.
I checked the time three times across 16 hours, assigning the meal cadence as my primary indicator of progress. I reflected on the holidays, and how different mine look every year as I grow older. My eyes brimmed at times as I thought about the grace and challenge holidays offer me and my family annually for all kinds of reasons. I made lists, wrote this blog post, considered my strategy for writing my own novel one day. I mapped out my adventures for 2016, both domestic and global, and appreciated the privilege of my curious mind and the lifestyle I have cultivated to do such things as “map out adventures.” I envisioned all the terrain, ocean and villages 31,000 feet below us as I blazed through Gloria’s book, My Life On The Road, listened to David Brooks’ The Road to Character, and slept intermittently too. In 16 hours, I slipped on my global explorer muscles, stood in the galley with men and women (some in saris, turbans, and other accoutrements emblematic of their cultures and/or religions), drank water and exhaled. I have landed.
