Sky High: Thoughts from 38,000 feet Above

There’s a reason why people photograph the clouds from a plane window .. because the clouds are everybody’s goal. The dream. The highest you can get. Above the chaos .. above the job you can’t stand, the honking of horns, the pushing to get past a slow walker - a break from trying to take control in heavy traffic and of bank accounts and classes and promotions and the hustling to be somebody significant. You’re just floating .. letting somebody else fly you to a different place.

On a plane in the clouds, nobody is stuck .. we’re all inevitably going to land somewhere different than the place we left.

The landing is the same for all of us - but the significance of the place we land in is different for each of us .. Some are landing home. Some are landing for a business trip. Some for vacation. Some to see a lover or a friend. Some are lost. Some are confident. Some are struggling. Some are content. Some have a ton of baggage and some just carry a light backpack .. or maybe nothing at all. Some are asleep and some are chugging caffeine. Some are accompanied and some are alone. No two passengers are the same .. But for a tiny fragment of time, all of our unique souls are together on this metal bird, cutting through clouds on our way to something somewhere.

We are sky high.

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I’ve been granted the gift of glorious freedom of getting to leave every single time I feel stuck .. And I've been granted the gift of obtaining this ridiculous amount of appreciation for people who take me places and give me coffee when I’m tired and pretzels when I’m hungry. [I write this as the flight attendant just gave me coffee and pretzels. Ha.]

We all need each other to learn from. Why don't we all look at life like this?

Radiate a light so bright about your own true self that it inspires others to be their own true selves. Do it. Do it for you and do it for other people so they’re inspired to be their best self. It’s scary as hell. But do it.

Do it scared. Do it with a broken out face that you’re trying so hard to cover up. I used to get so embarrassed of my break outs, feeling transparent like it showed everybody an outward expression of my internal tension. But I learned to confront this imperfection of mine and push my hair out of my face. Push your hair out of your face because other people break out and are full of fear too .. And when you push your hair out of your face and show off what you’ve been trying to cover up, other people notice and feel free to do the same.

We become a world of flawed humans, unembarrassed of our scars, teaching others to be unembarrassed of theirs.

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I recently started a new part-time job .. a job where the world is literally within arm's reach. Almost all of my new coworkers have welcomed me in so brightly that I forgot I’m a new hire. So many are instant friends. Let Amy be an example of inspiring somebody in two minutes. She is a former employee who I had just met. She was flying standby. Even though she no longer works for the company, she jumped right in to help me board an almost delayed flight. She had absolutely no hesitation about helping me or about introducing herself and asking me about me. People like her make the world greater and bigger and happier. Everybody loses the knots of tension in their shoulders when people treat people with that kind of class. It opens doors to friendships, laughter, truth, and trust.

My immediate thoughts in meeting all of these new people -

What have I been missing all of these years in the music industry where I oftentimes feel like the only real person I can turn to is in my bathroom mirror?! .. [Give or take a few people - emphasis on few - who have remained constants in my life]. During the last six years, I got real good at talking to myself and even better at choosing to be alone over being in rooms full of empty conversations. One step into a new industry, and all of a sudden my whole world is flooded with these magnificent people I didn’t even know existed a few months ago.

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I wake up at 3am four days a week - but I’m almost always wide awake at the airport. It's the place where people are going places .. We get to send them off to those places - and then we get to live this throw-a-dart-at-a-destination-and-go lifestyle, exploring this curiously gorgeous planet God created for us to run our feet on and touch with our fingertips.

We are here on earth for a tiny, tiny fragment of time. See it. Touch it. Love it. Hate it. Find your places. Find your people. It means going through industries full of weeds to walk your way into industries full of roses.

Dream dreams and instead of flirting with ideas - pursue them .. And always know that when life feels bad, it gets better when you keep walking. You’ll likely find yourself in many wrong places before finding all the right ones. Maybe you’ll live in the wrong city for a while and be sleeping next to the wrong person for a minute .. But that's how you discover what’s right and what’s good and what’s real. You’ll quickly learn the difference from the photoshopped people and the real ones.

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People can and will back pedal .. Some will change their minds about loving you. One of the toughest things I ever had to learn was to not let people's changing minds change my mind about me.

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I think this is the first time in my life that I’ve ever not had a broken heart. :)

Xo,

M