strangers become friends

Today was slightly crazy. I woke up not feeling well in a hotel in St. Petersburg, Florida, forcing me to scratch my plans to drive to the beach for a morning jog. I slept in and missed hotel breakfast. Missed my exit on the way to see a client, which ended up taking me all the way across the bridge to Tampa and back, which made me late for my appointment. Sweated bullets trying to multi-task driving back to the airport, filling up with gas, returning the rental car, and still holding my meetings with clients on the phone. Didn't have time to get dinner before or between flights...yeah, definitely back in the real world again.

You know what, though? I met some amazing people today that made my entire day worth it. 

There is the former musician and current entrepreneur who initially thought I was single because I wasn't wearing a ring (sorry Craig, I'll fix that!). He is my age, loves his dogs, doesn't really have a homebase, travels wherever the wind blows him, really likes to play the field, and never wants to be tied down...even though he said his lifestyle is often un-fulfilling. His fun outlook on life is infectious, but he reminded me that the grass is not always greener on the other side. I am grateful to have roots and a great marriage to ground me.

Then the woman from Tampa who has a toddler and travels as much as I do. We talked about the challenges of being a working mom, how hard it is to leave her daughter when she travels, and how to find the best nanny (?!). She opened up to me and trusted me, a stranger, about some of her deepest fears for her family. From her, I learned about making yourself vulnerable to new people, and about a mothers love.

Finally, the young girl and her one-year old daughter moving from Tampa to NYC to live with her mom because her baby's daddy was on probation and they were going through some hard times. She felt like she needed to move away from him to teach him a lesson and give her daughter a better life. From her, I learned courage, strength and selflessness.

As I sit in my tiny hotel room in Manhattan reflecting on my day, I realize that each of these people and their stories changed me a little. I learned something from each of their struggles, joys and personalities that will stay with me forever...and that beauty overshadows any chaos in my day.

Strangers are beautiful.

a beautiful song

i returned to the real world today. after being back for less than 24 hours, i'm already off to another flight and will be in 3 more states before the end of the week. i will have slept in my bed twice in 24 days. yes, my life is crazy, but i don't have to be stressed about it.

as i was walking through the nashville airport during my layover trying to scavenge for decently healthy food before my next flight, i plugged in my ear buds and listened a song that instantly slowed life down.

it's a beautiful song and i was intoxicated by its' soft, melodic sounds. i found myself smiling while listening to it as i noticed all the passionate musicians lugging their instruments with them around the airport. i thought -- how beautiful it is that their passion for their hobby, and maybe profession, is so strong. perhaps, one day, i can have that sort of passion for a hobby. i'd like to.

until then, i will enjoy an intoxicating song that makes my world stand still, and the passionate people who create them.

the white haired woman on the plane

Because I travel so much, I am easily annoyed by amateur travelers…people who exit their plane rows/seat before their turn, people who push the back of my chair, people who play their shows or music out loud without headphones, etc. On one of my planes yesterday, an elderly woman exited her seat, when deplaning, ahead of her turn and ahead of me. Her two adult children followed her and “cut” in front of me. Rather than being annoyed, I took a moment to look at this woman. 

To most, she probably looked old and wrinkly. To me, I saw bright eyes, grace and determination. Rather than noticing the wrinkles and dreading the day that I would have them, I saw the long and beautiful life she had lived. I imagined the experiences she has had. I was envious of the wisdom she had gained. For the first time, age was beautiful to me. This woman was beautiful, and I just wanted to get to know her and learn more about her story. I didn’t even mind that she had cut the line. In fact, she DESERVED to cut in line! She had earned it simply for her bravery in facing this life for so long. Hopefully she found many beautiful moments along her way. 

a resolution and a revolution

I haven’t felt like I have had much to say in a long time. Life consisted of monotony and routine – work, chores, errands, exercise (sometimes) and sleep. Wake up and repeat. No one wants to hear that I got on another plane and traveled to see another client, or that I chose not to go to the gym because I was too tired, that I went on a retail therapy binge (again) only to return all my purchases the next week (like usual), or that I worked another 12 hour day. That’s boring…so I haven’t written.

The first part of the year was super stressful with a crazy school schedule for Craig, and a crazy work schedule for me. We felt like we had barely survived and it was only February, so we planned a vacation to Hawaii in May. Craig had never been and we had actually never taken a vacation alone in the 3.5 years we have been married.

As vacation approached, all I felt was stress. Stress that I was leaving work at one of the busiest times since I have been at HireVue…that I would burden my co-workers and neglect my clients…that I wasn’t skinny enough to be in a swimsuit…that it wasn’t a smart financial decision, etc. I almost considered canceling the trip (don’t tell Craig).  But May 15^th came and I got on the plane and committed to unplugging and not checking my work email. For the first 3 days of vacation, all I could think about was how guilty I felt for taking a vacation. I even checked my work email a few times. After a few days, I started to feel myself unwind. The remaining 10 days were a solid journey to feeling completely stress free. By the end of vacation, I had changed. Everything was brighter, clearer, and more beautiful. I felt free as a bird and lighter than I had in ages (not literally…I gained the obligatory vacation 5!).

I know I can’t always feel that way, but I can be more balanced at it. I returned with the goal of finding something beautiful in my life each day and having a more carefree attitude. Even though I am not in Kauai anymore. Even though I am in Cleveland, or on crowded planes, or picking up dog poop, or trying to drive in areas that are new to me, or simply doing the mundane and routine parts of life. Rarely is anything in life so urgent or severe that it warrants the stress we usually react with -- we can choose to react to the challenges in life with something other than stress. Rarely is life as hard or ugly as we make it out to be – we can find beauty everywhere and in everything we do. 

Beauty is subjective, and it is often a perspective. We have to find it. I have to find it. I choose to find it.