At the airport. It's never easy to leave home. But I sometimes find peace through complete strangers.
I look around and I see so many different faces, different ways of life, worried faces, happy faces and those who are in tears -- it is where I find a different sense of comfort.
Knowing at that moment complete strangers can relate to how I might be feeling. Knowing that gut-wrenching feeling seeing someone trying to make it on a flight with bad news on the otherside of their destination. Watching a parent hug their daughter or son goodbye. Hearing a child cry because they don't want their father to leave for work. But then there is that feeling of pure joy seeing two people run up to eachother and hug eachother. A soldier running to hold his kids. A group of college kids and their contagious laughter about to step out on an adventure.
I once heard someone say airports and hospitals are the two places you will hear the most sincere goodbyes. If these walls could talk...
All these people around me, we all woke up today. We all had a different journey up to this point. We all have different worries, struggles, anxieties...we never truly know what the next person is dealing with. Sometimes I silently pray for strangers. I wonder if anyone is silently praying for me. Considering how blessed I feel, I must be surrounded everyday by a dedicated group of prayer warriors.
The power of prayer is just that -- POWERFUL.
Being in a public place and observing people can teach you a lot. Our own worries and struggles are not to be dismmised because they may pale in comparison to those we see having "real problems." But our worries and struggles are still our own. Our feelings are never wrong. Instead what it does, is it puts things into perspective when you see how very blessed you are in the presence of complete strangers.
So thank you God that today I am not the scared teenager sitting across from me who looks like they're headed back to school. I remember those days. I've been blessed enough to be able to say that I have been through that stage with God -- conquered it. Thank you God that I am standing and waiting in a long line and not in a wheelchair. Thank you God that leaving my family is still a choice I have made for my career and not a mandatory deployment like my brother-in-law had to make. Thank you God that I am sad right now, not because of anything bad that happened, but because I am gonna miss my amazing, tight-nit family who loves and supports me unconditonally.
Do the little things that can make a huge impact on the life of a stranger. Smile. Hold the door. Conversate. Compliment someone. Offer a helping hand. You'll never know how far that will take the next person.
Be someone's blessing today.
#LETGOd #CrystalsCorner
