People: Wisdom from 'Airport Mom' (12/6)

December 6th

People: Who did you meet in 2011? Who would you like to meet in 2012?

A few months ago, I blogged on my other site about meeting a woman at the airport. In conversation as of late, I find myself referring to this person who I affectionately called then - and now - “Airport Mom.” 

It's Independence Day. Let freedom ring, let the white dove sing, let the whole world know that this is a day of reckoning.  

This day meant so much to me, and I spent five hours of it in an airport. I came off a weekend of creating new memories and new friendships and different relationships. I am, was, spent. I sat next to a woman at the airport bar.

Airport Mom said to me (I will paraphrase) "Karma is about things happening for a reason, it is not payback."  

It's a statement, even as a woman of Christian faith, that I enveloped my emotional heart around. I wondered, when you feel you left a piece of your heart somewhere or with someone, do you get that back?  

How? Is it by returning? Is it by faithful or divine intervention? Is going really going? Is it just the beginning of something you never anticipated beginning? Is missing someone the unexpected indication that you love them more than you thought? 

Airport Mom's husband passed away in May. She had just returned from seeing her first husband on her getaway trip. She said she loved her second husband. Their time was so short, and she believed she served a purpose in his life, and he hers. Somehow, their path was the road that may lead her back to her first husband. The true love of her life. 

If a chance meeting at an airport bar provides a lifetime of wisdom; imagine what a chance encounter at a wedding can do? Or a split decision amongst friends to share a hotel room? Or to eat Twizzlers? 

We are all coming and going to somewhere - where the heart is, where we hope the grass is greener, to where we believe we really belong.  

It's in that coming and going that we really live. It's not in that destination. This weekend I lived possibly more than I have in years. I lived in the in-between of coming and going, knowing it was not a short-lived reunion. It was just a passage of time leading to several lifetime friendships.

2012:

I don’t have my eyes set on anyone I need to meet next year. I just hope that whoever I do meet, that I take time to help them however I can, to hear their story, and be a friend.