Airports

On Sunday I brought my friends Kristi and Jeremy to the airport. They're going to Vegas for spring break. I've taken a few people to the airport and been on a few flights, and there is something about the energy in airports that I really enjoy. When you are at the airport you know that everyone has a story. Sure, everyone always has a story. . . but hey, if you run into me at the grocery store, it's pretty clear, I'm there to get food. If it is late at night, very likely to get ice cream. But at the airport people's stories get a little more interesting. Some unbelievably happy, some unbelievably sad, some scared and nervous, some annoyed and indifferent, some crazy excited. I've been almost all of these emotions myself while at the airport. I don't know if it is that it represented hope and possibility, or just escape, but I actually thought about hanging out for a while just to witness that full range of the human experience. In the end, I didn't.

It also made me really want to go somewhere. It didn't strike me til I was at the airport how wonderful it would be if I was the one flying off somewhere. Maybe that was also because I was starting my second externship the next morning, and just wasn't feeling up for it, and it seemed like flying off somewhere would be the easier alternative. I think that travel really is good for the soul, and it is easy to forget that when I haven't done it in a while. In the same way that being out in nature is tremendously good for my soul, and yet I always forget that so easily, especially in the winter when I keep myself cooped up in the house, and then when I finally go outside and witness the beauty all around me, I think to myself. . . why don't I do this more??

Climb the mountains and get to their good tidings
Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees
The winds will blow their own freshness into you
and the storms their energy, while cares drop off like autumn leaves
--John Muir