439 days later...

After 439 days, for the first time, I will be flying again -- tomorrow!!

The advance check-in process imposes tremendous anxiety -- the airline emailed me a week ago describing the touch-less on boarding process, then texted me multiple times today for the advance check-in.  Feels like I no longer know how to fly...

My last trip was 439 days ago, leaving our Board meeting from New Orleans, flying back to Chicago on the evening of 3/10/2020. The country was not locked down back then, but I was determined NOT to eat or drink anything on board. I remembered the flight attendant was so apologetic for the fact that I didn't eat the dinner during the flight that she insisted on offering me a $150 voucher or X number of miles that I couldn't remember anymore... Everything felt like yesterday. 

Well, the past 439 days have been bitter sweet. I've lived in our house for almost 25 years, but never seemed to have a chance to pay attention to the neighborhood, to the block, to the trees and birds until literally last March.  Over the past 439 days, I've walk around this block countless times; I've seen the leaves growing and falling and growing again; I've heard the birds singing different songs, and I can tell the different songs they sing in the morning vs. at night...

In a strange way, I am thankful for the shutdown over the past 14 months -- it's given us the opportunity to calm our hearts and be aware. I hope the reopening of the human society will not push us to become lost again. 

The Path

I remember following Boyd Varty's 40-days and 40-nights podcasts last year, from 4/2 to 5/11/2020.  It was one year ago, today, I noted this when listening to his podcasts. Still profound, after 365 days...

Just because we’re on A path, doesn’t mean we’re on OUR path.  We have a goal, an idea, a career, a rational life plan that we’ve polished from start to finish.  But all of these, while still very useful and necessary, can hide the tracks of our deeper path.  And while it’s not as comforting as having a predictable plan for our lives, if we can learn to listen - truly listen - to our authentic selves, we can find our true path.

  

On Saturday, April 25, 2020, 7:36:58 PM CDT, Pei Tang <tang_pei@yahoo.com> wrote:

https://boydvarty.com/about/40-days-40-nights/ 

By Boyd Varty

My name is Boyd Varty.  I think of myself as an artist of experience.  My passion is to create transformational experiences for myself and others as a way to explore what it means to truly love.

My aspiration is to live on what I'd call as the track of your life. To me, this is to live courageously toward the discovery of what you're called to and what life asks of you.

When I was a safari guide, I used to have a joke about photography.  Cameras ruin amazing moments in nature.  With a camera, suddenly there was this thing that needs attention between you and the experience. 

Solitude re-collaborates value and time.  My solitude has helped me understand the difference between loneliness and longing and which one I actually had.  Most of my life has been somewhere else, with more important things to do.  Or thinking it was happening over there...  I like it here where I've finally stopped.  I'd like to stop more often.

Waking Up

The world is finally waking up, ready to move -- with caution...

 

Naperville, IL

May 16, 2021