COMING IN ON FLIGHT 79
From
Linda Lee Greene, Author/Artist
“You know what the trouble is, don’t you?” the man in the aisle seat in my row said to me. My head on its stiff neck cranked in his direction, an enquiring eyebrow lifted in irritation. It had been my habit over the years to avoid airplane conversations. I used such occasions to let loose full-bore my intrinsic reserve. “It’s all that heavy baggage stuffed top to bottom in the hold,” the man went on to explain. “You’d think that people would learn by now that if they want an easier takeoff and a smoother flight, they’d pack lighter than before. Seventy-nine of these flights and nobody seems to have learned that lesson—nobody but me that is. This is the extent of my gear,” he said as he placed a small leather pouch no larger than his open hand on the empty seat between us.
“Cheeky fellow,” I said to myself and then turned my face back to the window. All of a sudden, fuming, black clouds split open and barraged the airplane with a torrent of rain. The vessel rose and dropped, rose and dropped like a rollercoaster car. My knuckles white on the armrests, I nearly lost my breakfast. I stole a glance at my seat companion and was astonished at his utter composure. His hands folded softly in his lap and eyes closed, his chest expanded and contracted in gentle, easy breaths. It appeared that his experience of our journey was the opposite of mine.
Moments that seemed an eternity passed by, and the plane leveled and found its balance for a while. I thought it expedient to discover the source of the man’s serenity. “What’s your destination?” I inquired.
“As far as the plane will take me,” was his reply. “Further along than last year,” he added.
“I never seem to get very far at all from my starting point,” I admitted. “There have been trips where I even went backwards.”
“Same here,” he confessed.
“What’s different this trip?” I asked.
“I had a dream. I take messages in dreams to heart. In the dream, a voice told me flat out that I had to lighten my load if I expect to ever get where I’m supposed to go, and especially to get off the ground for my very last trip, which the voice told me is still far in the future. So, I started unloading my enormous suitcase.”
“Unloading it of what?”
“The voice told me to begin by dumping outworn regrets and then pointless guilt; childish resentments and envies and jealousies and grudges; unspoken apologies; unattended amends, and pernicious unforgiveness. Getting rid of those things alone would lighten the load a whole lot. But that wasn’t enough—not nearly enough. There is this thing called ‘yearning,’ that wistful longing for things that will never be. Do you know what I mean?”
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Pastel and acrylic painting, “Coppers”
by Linda Lee Greene |
“Do I ever!” I answered. I pushed back into my seat, closed my eyes and thought about all my companion had said. Without a doubt, unforgiveness would continue to stick to me like glue. And must I accept that I will never live in that villa-of-my-dreams in Tuscany; that I will never know if so-and-so really loved me; that I will never be sure that my children will be okay without me? Hardest of all will be to give up agonizing over those unfinished things: the paintings I will leave undone; the poems, essays, blog posts, and books I won’t complete.
If I rid myself of all those things, I guess my suitcase will be pretty empty—probably not entirely empty, because I’m quite sure nobody gets out completely clear and clean. But maybe I can get it down to a small pouch like my companion’s. If I keep chiseling away so that by the end of this spiritual journey known as ‘my life,’ maybe, just maybe I will be as weightless as a butterfly, and who knows how wonderful my final flight will be and where it will take me?
“Happy 79!” my companion said to me.
“How does he know I’m 79?” I asked myself. Just before I drifted off to sleep, I remembered that nobody boarded Flight 79 any other way. Outside the window, the storm raged again, and I was no longer afraid.
Linda
Readers
were introduced to American Nicholas Plato in multi-award-winning author Linda
Lee Greene’s A Chance at the Moon, which is available on Amazon. In Garden
of the Spirits of the Pots, A Spiritual Odyssey, Nicholas boards a plane
for Sydney, Australia with bags that are stuffed full of anger and heartbreak
and other life-defeating issues. Little does he know that he is arriving at the
time and place to empty his baggage, and to risk himself to love.
Here’s
a peek at multi-award-winning
author and artist Linda Lee Greene’s latest book, Garden of the Spirits of the Pots, A Spiritual Odyssey. It is a blend of visionary and
inspirational fiction with a touch of romance. The story unfolds as ex-pat
American Nicholas Plato journeys into parts unknown, both within himself and
his adopted home of Sydney, Australia. In the end, the odyssey reveals to him
his true purpose for living. The novella is available in eBook and paperback.
Driven by a deathly
thirst, he stops. A strange little brown man materializes out of nowhere and
introduces himself merely as ‘Potter,’ and welcomes Nicholas to his ‘Garden of
the Spirits of the Pots.’ Although Nicholas has never laid eyes on Potter, the
man seems to have expected Nicholas at his bizarre habitation and displays
knowledge about him that nobody has any right to possess. Just who is this
mysterious Aboriginal potter?
Although
they are as mismatched as two persons can be, a strangely inevitable friendship
takes hold between them. It is a relationship that can only be directed by an
unseen hand bent on setting Nicholas on a mystifying voyage of self-discovery
and Potter on revelations of universal certainties.
A blend of
visionary and inspirational fiction, and a touch of romance, this is a tale of
Nicholas’ journey into parts unknown, both within his adopted home and himself,
a quest that in the end leads him to his true purpose for living.
Multi-award-winning author and artist
Linda Lee Greene describes her life as a telescope that when trained on her past reveals how each piece of it, whether good or bad or in-between, was necessary in the unfoldment of her fine art and literary paths.
Greene moved from farm-girl to city-girl; dance instructor to wife, mother, and homemaker; divorcee to single-working-mom and adult-college-student; and interior designer to multi-award-winning artist and author, essayist, and blogger. It was decades of challenging life experiences and debilitating, chronic illness that gave birth to her dormant flair for art and writing. Greene was three days shy of her fifty-seventh birthday when her creative spirit took a hold of her.
She found her way to
her lonely easel soon thereafter. Since then Greene has accepted commissions
and displayed her artwork in shows and galleries in and around the USA. She is
also a member of artist and writer associations.
Visit Linda on her blog and join her on Facebook. Linda loves to hear from readers so feel free to email her.
Garden of the
Spirits of the Pots is available in
eBook and/or paperback on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/GARDEN-SPIRITS-POTS-SPIRITUAL-ODYSSEY-ebook/dp/B09JM7YL6F/
Pastels
and acrylics painting, “Coppers” by Linda Lee Greene
