The management training session in Mexico City had been a success and I was headed to Miami to celebrate Chad’s (my oldest son) eleventh birthday. I had a two day respite in Florida before returning to New England to prepare for the next trip to Hong Kong by way of Manila. The plane had just taken off from its refueling stop in Merida, on the Yucatán Peninsula. As we were climbing to ten thousand feet in our ascent, the cabin began to fill with stifling smoke. The oxygen masks deployed as the captain announced we would be returning to the hanger from which we had just departed. Suddenly an overwhelming sense of unfinished business began to consume me. A stifling fear that my sons or family might never be seen again was kept at bay by a frank surrender of my mind and heart to a place of thankfulness to God for what I had already experienced in my life. As the evidence of anxiety rose in the cabin of the 727, I settled down to a place of silent prayers of thankfulness and surrender to whatever might unfold. We returned safely to the terminal for a several hour wait before another departure that whisked us safely away to Miami International. The frank disruption of a clearly defined and planned agenda can be annoying but being confronted with one’s mortality seemingly prematurely presents life changing opportunities. A chronic illness known as PD came to reside with me a few years ago. It has insinuated itself in the midst of my agenda, at times planting anxiety, pain, and stiffness causing frank disruption to my planned life agenda. Like the event at Merida, I settle down to a place of quiet thankfulness for what has already been given. PD may have made its home with me for the duration, but it has not my life defined. I strive to keep it calmly in its quarters surrounded by exercise, good nutrition, and thankful surrender to God’s love. I am not thankful for the presence of disease, but I am thankful to the one who provides strength in surrender, growth in acceptance, hope in the battle, and victory every day.
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