It seems that a lot of the short stories I write center around an airport. I’ve had this realization before in the past but today it seems very apropos as I am actually sitting in an airport.

The story is long and fairly exciting. It involves new family members, weddings, rain, car crashes, sickness, and last of all Fog. Being an Arizona girl, I don’t see fog very often. In fact, when I do see fog, it is something mystical and magical, and meant to be pointed at with lots of oohs and aahs as we drive past the fields of cotton or alfalfa, or whatever the fog seems to be hovering over.

Being in the desert means we don’t have a whole lot of moisture obviously, so fog is quite the anomaly.

This weekend I spent a few days in Washington for the first time. Washington has always been one of those places that was in itself, mystical and unreal, and a destination, to be sought for in the future or somewhere in the depths of my bucket list. I was always intrigued with the idea of being up high in the country near water with lots of rain. Again that southwest desert inbreeding made rain a very magical thing to me.

The flight here was short and cramped, and not very conducive to the nap I was trying to take, but I was grateful for it because it was a gift.

Now that I’ve had my fun, been to my events, and met the new amazing people that have been added to my family, it was time for me to head home.

I arrived at the airport two hours early, as we are advised to do, and ended up spending an hour of that time talking and sharing with my new Bestie. I’m amazed at her strength and wisdom and the hardships and trials she’s gone through. She has emerged a beautiful, sweet, creative, kind person on the other side. I hope to be like that myself.

As the time neared my flight departure, we said our goodbyes, and I made my way through the short and actually very friendly TSA line toward my gate. I got there only a couple minutes after the official boarding time was to have started only to find a rather abrupt announcement of a cancelled flight.

Honestly, I just had to laugh about it.

I have found in my life that things are going to go wrong and not according to plan and the best thing to do is just smile and say, “OK now what?”

As I looked around the terminal of the people, frantically grabbing bags and going on the app and trying to find a new flight, I noticed that I couldn’t really see through the windows. The fog is settled in what I guess would be described as pea soup from the many novels I’ve read. We couldn’t even see the planes parked outside the airport. The fog was thick and dense, and actually made me laugh out loud.

Never in my life have I had a flight canceled due to fog! This wasn’t on my bucket list, but I might as well put it on there as it’s something that I’ve now had to experience.

As I made my way out to find a place to buy some water, I talked to the lady behind the counter and discovered that she had grown up in Arizona. She actually doesn’t like it here because of the fog and the wet, but her kids love it, and she loves her kids, so she is here. We talked about how some people are crazy and actually enjoy the cold, but we prefer the warm weather where don’t ache and our fingers don’t curl into knots.

She told of me a woman sitting across the terminal from where we were standing, who has been sitting there for two days, waiting for her husband who was on a flight from San Francisco. Apparently he had flown over and almost gotten to land but they canceled the landing due to fog and he had to turn around. They were trying again today, but it didn’t look like he was going to get to land today either.

Again, I had to think of the blessings that I have been given; I am here by myself without a young child who is crying and fussing, I don’t have to go to work tomorrow, I don’t have a hotel room I have to pay for, I don’t have to get a rental car, and I don’t have anybody who needs me to be home quickly. The kids at home are fine and the people here will let me stay another day.

The silver lining is I get to see my son a little bit longer before he heads back to college. I don’t have to start back to school for another six days. I have everything that I need to be safe and warm and taken care of. I’m sure there’s some reason why I’m not flying out right now. I trust the Lord has a plan for me, and for all of us that have been waylaid and sent in directions that we weren’t planning.

I guess my lesson from all of this is just to wait and see what happens. Be open to possibilities and maybe, just maybe, I will find a new story in an airport.

Because I said so.