Airports, flying and changes

As I was sitting at the Salt Lake City airport waiting to board a plane to Phoenix I thought about the process of actually getting to that point in an airport. I tend to carry on my bags because I usually don’t go for more than a weekend. This time I was going for a week so I decided to check a bag. Plus I was flying Southwest and I can check it for free. Checking my bag at the airport was interesting. I checked in my bag, a destination tag was attached and I was told to take it down to the screener. This was new to me. I walked slowly in the direction of what looked like the screener and the guy waved me forward. He took my bag and I asked is that it, do I go now? He said yes but was he thinking what an idiot?? In addition I remember when you could walk to the gate to meet or see someone off. Being able to give someone that last hug before they boarded their plane or get that first hug the moment they were off the plane is a thing of the past. Only those with a proper boarding pass and ID can get back to the gates after going through security checks. In addition there are many changes and restrictions when it comes to carry on bags. All the changes when it comes to flying are due to 9-11. How one day, one incident, one choice changed the lives of so many people. There are stories of people who would've been there but weren’t due to one little difference in their daily routine or the other way around. Look back in history and see how one day, one choice or one incident changed the course of many things. One can even look back on their own life and see the same thing. My own life is full of choices and incidents. Some I have handled with grace but others I have not. Some things that happened in my life were devastating. My grandson Matthew dying at 16 months is the most devastating thing that has happened to my kids and me. While this happened in 1997, our lives will never be the same. There is always a part of us that is missing. We have learned and are still learning to live with it. In the face of such tragedies there are choices to be made. It is not easy to keep going but taking it step by step, day by day was what I did because my kids needed me. There were hard days when I didn’t want to get up out of bed but I forced myself to do it. There are times when it can still hit me as if it just happened but I strive to keep moving forward. Life does not stop with the things that happen, big or small. If a person decides to just stop in their tracks, life continues on around them. For those who are facing things in their life that make them want to just stop where they are at I encourage you to take it one day, one moment or one step at a time. You will one day look at your life and see how not standing was the best thing to do. One of my life quotes is from Michael J Fox’s “Always Looking Up.” It is in relation to his Parkinson’s but any situation can be put in the place of it. In his book he says “For everything this disease has taken, something with greater value has been given--sometimes just a marker that points me in a new direction that I might not otherwise have traveled. So, sure, it may be one step forward and two steps back, but after a time with Parkinson's, I've learned that what is important is making that one step count; always looking up.”