Last Friday afternoon my son left on an airplane for another adventure. I’m glad he was able to go, I hate that his adventure didn’t turn out the way he wished. Stuff happens.
My son’s flight out was at six thirty Friday afternoon. He got home from work just before four thirty, the time he should have been walking into the airport. Instead he decided to double check his carry on and take a quick shower. It was going on five when we pulled out of the driveway and headed for Charlotte. You know how when you’re in a hurry, everything happens to slow you down? We got behind so many slow vehicles it wasn’t…well it was, funny. He griped, he complained, he shouted at the cars ahead of us. All the while I’m sitting in the passenger seat, staring out the window biting my tongue. I said nothing about anything because I knew if I opened my mouth, mom comments would come out. “If you had left on time..” I was very proud of myself that I didn’t utter a single one of those, knowing they would not have helped and only soured his mood further.
We arrive at the airport, we see a long line of vehicles and he nearly panics. Thankfully they were in line for arrivals. He pulls as close as he can to the drop off spot, stops the car and jumps. Grabbing his carry on he heads off into the depths of the airport. I walk around to take the driver’s seat and pull out. I then discovered that he had turned the emergency flashers on. For the life of me, I couldn’t get them to stop. I’m driving out of the airport drop off with the flashers happily doing their thing. My battle almost cost me my turn but I managed to squeeze into traffic only to discover the emergency flashers had stopped. I’m barely in the turn lane and hoping no one angrily side swipes me for my lack of good driving skills or knowledge of the airport roads. I did notice that in the lane I had been in, there had been a domino accident. It appeared that three cars were involved in a minor bang up. No one seemed injured, just annoyed.
On the road for home I was looking at the time. I had planned for months on attending our local Relay for Life event. I would never make it now. I knew that the interstate was a parking lot so the highway I was on was catching the runoff. It was a very slow go for most of the way to my turn off. It didn’t help when I was crossing a narrow bridge and had to deal with a bicycle rider who seemed to be deliberately slowing traffic by his actions. Once around him I felt more at ease.
At home, the house was so quiet. I kept listening for the rooms to have an echo it was that quiet. I got to thinking that I would talk to my son about going to a race that isn’t all that far from here. I did broach the subject in a phone conversation but he seemed uninterested in making a weekend of that one. I dropped the subject not wanting him to realize my disappointment.
Yesterday (Sunday May first) was race day at Dover. They got there in time, calling me to let me know. I could hear race related events going on in the background. They were a couple of hours early so I had time to do some things around here before I turned on the race. The race that ended up being rained out. The Monster Mile had become a wash out. The race was rescheduled for today, but my son’s flight home and his having to work tomorrow meant he couldn’t stay. He should be home sometime between six thirty and seven tonight.
I really feel badly that he didn’t get to see this race, especially with all the trouble he went to just trying to get there. He flew in to Pittsburgh and they drove to Dover arriving at their airbnb around two in the morning. The thing is, how often have any of us planned for something only to not have it happen or happen differently than we hoped? My missing Relay didn’t cost me anything. Obviously this trip did cost my son a fair amount financially. But we risk that when we hope and plan.
The one thing that holds no disappointment, is our faith in Christ and our home in eternity. I look out my back door at the beauty of nature. I see photos, videos, television programs of very amazing places on this planet. Heaven is going to be so much more. The best thing, is being with Jesus and feeling His love and peace first hand. No more struggles. No more fears. No more disappointments.
Words from The Dirt Road 