To Fly

The bird so high in a blue sky,

No wings flapping, moving smoothly in flight.

The trail it leaves marks a path,

From one destination to another.

To see from so high, so very high,

A world so small, its largeness so immense.

I long for a return to flight,

To see a world I thought I once knew.

From feet in the cool green grass,

Gazing to see a bird so free in flight.

Longing for the lift to let the dew release,

Seeing the curve of my earthly wonder.

My flight will return, to soar above the birds,

To feel the air beneath my feet.

Rising above the noise and chaos,

To return and nest in the comfort of a lover.

-- Stay inspired my friends.

Landing Our Connections

"I think people are isolated because of the nature of human consciousness, and they like it when they feel the connection between themselves and someone else.." ~ James Taylor

Many Monday mornings can be a blur for me. These days tend to be very busy days. I am either heading out on the road or catching up from the previous weeks travel. Many a Monday leaves me little time to even consider writing anything motivational.

Monday is a day of shift for me and for many of you.

Mondays are also a day when we to adjust our focus on clarity. It is a day we transition that focus from weekend relaxation to the work required to make the weekends much better. It is also a chance to bring life into focus by connecting with others and then doing something with our newfound clarity.

Connections are made by drawing closer, not further away.

When traveling by plane, the engines begin their deafening roar as the plane presses at increasing speed upon takeoff. The laws of gravity and air resistance seem in contradiction to lifting a fully loaded Boeing 737 airplane weighing roughly 75 tons.

Traveling down the runway at 170 mph, we lift off and the details of everything disappear as the plane rises higher and higher. When reaching a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet, you can see huge expanses of the earth.

The earth spreads out before you in a wondrous view.

One also notices the buildings, the people, the cars and the small details are also gone. From such a high altitude, there is no ability to focus on the small details. The people, the cars and buildings are impossible to see.

It reminds me that if we back ourselves away from connection with people, we lose the same ability to focus on things. We lose our relationships to others around us. We might as well be 35,000 feet in the air.

When we draw closer, relationships reappear and come into focus.

A plane descends near the end of a flight and little things reappear again. The shapes of buildings become clear. One can see vehicles racing up and down various roads. The landscape up close becomes much more recognizable, more familiar to the eye.

We begin to more clearly focus on all of the details as we drew closer to them. The closer a plane comes to landing, the closer we draw towards others, the tighter our connection becomes with everything around us.

Connection can only take place when we draw closer to others.

When we draw ourselves into relationship with other people, our focus on life achieves much greater clarity. With newfound clarity, your ability to impact the lives of others becomes much greater. The ability of others to impact your life becomes greater.

Your best life becomes even more achievable with connection.

Do not isolate yourself at 35,000 feet. It may feel like you can see so much further, but in reality you only see a possible landscape of your life. To live that possibility you need to draw close to it. And you draw close by connecting with people.

Achieve focus through connections and gain a better life.

Stay inspired my friends.

The Old Man in Seat 12B

"Respect your elders: they graduated high school without Google or Wikipedia!" -Unknown

I had boarded the flight early as I normally do, settling into seat 12C. As I fly quite frequently, my airline status allows me to board early. It is a seat on the aisle near the front of the plane, one of my favorite spots. The location can be great for people watching as seasoned flyers and first timers all jostle down the narrow aisle looking for their assigned seat.

Today would be no different I thought, a normal flight to Boston, my usual routine. After settling in I would get my headphones on, my iPad opened to my favorite music and settle in for two hours of reading. Yet today would be a day when I would not do the usual, for the old man in 12B would delight my day.

He found a way to place his items in the overhead compartment and fumbled a bit getting into his seat. My thoughts at first were that he was new to flying. It also seemed odd with his crumpled trench coat, a well used jacket but neatly finished with an outdated tie. By the leathery look of his skin and deep wrinkles, I imagined his age to be well into his eighties.

As I finished up some business on my iPhone, he gestured and remarked at how connected we are these days. He certainly wasn't against technology but he said we never seem to talk anymore or better yet, we never seem to listen to each other much anymore. So with that, I shut off my phone, put away my iPad and headphones in order to listen.

The lady in 12A was not too sure what to think of this old gentleman as he told me his tales. She had a look of skepticism on her face but to me, I found him fascinating. The stories of his travels to many parts of the world having worked for a large mining company were amazing. But many times he and his wife of nearly sixty years traveled for leisure.

They would travel many times to South America, taking in the adventures that traveling outside of your comfort zone can be. He gave me detailed depictions of the places they had been; the food, the music and the people. Remembering those travels with his wife brought a smile to his face.

You see, she had died three years ago when cancer came back a second time. Quietly he spoke not to me but to his own thoughts about her. It was ongoing medical work that had him heading to Boston from Charleston, South Carolina where he lived. The day was nearly half over and the flight only forty-five minutes from landing when he drifted into sleep.

I sat and thought of the stories he had told me. Much of what was said could have been gleaned from National Geographic magazines or any local library. I am sure the lady in 12A felt he was spinning a tale. But I chose to believe the old man in 12B. I chose to allow his adventures to inspire me to seek more out of life.

He passed onto me what he knew; a real Tango in Argentina, seeing Table Mountain from a boat offshore of Capetown, having high tea in the lobby of the Peninsula Hotel while in Hong Kong, or taking in a Turkish bath at the Danubius Hotel Gellert in Budapest. Each one was crystal clear in his descriptions and it appeared that he wanted to pass his joy of each one to me.

The plane landed and as all travelers do, we go our separate ways. I shook his hand and thanked him for the conversation. He never gave me his name, but he smiled and thanked me for my time, for listening I suppose. As I left though he said to me, "find more time to experience the adventure of life."

I learned a lot from an elderly man in seat 12B. I learned about living life from a man I will probably never see again. I learned by listening.

Stay inspired my friends.