I love planes! I love flying. I love the energy of the airport, full of curious and excited people ready for adventure! The restaurants and shops are so fun, too, even though they are often overpriced. And I love planes themselves – even the cramped seats and bathrooms. I’m a bit of a romantic about traveling, I suppose!
Airports are a unique ecosystem. After you get through the gate, there’s a whole new world at your fingertips! You can get a steak and martini for breakfast. Or have a massage between flights. You can work and hold meetings while in transit. Or shop for luxury handbags and Spanx.
Once you get on the plane you experience another unique ecosystem. A cold one. With pretzels.
No matter where I’m traveling, I like to make a plan for my plane ride. Rather, I have an idea of what I want to accomplish or what I want to focus on. I do some of my best writing and planning on planes! I process well in that unplugged, controlled environment.
Flying to Costa Rica this week, I’m planning on reading and journaling on my flight. Plain and simple. Two of my favorite reflective ways to transition from one place to the next.
What I’ll be reading is a new-to-me book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. It’s been on my list for sometime. It’s the kind of book that I would certainly learn from if I read it on my couch at home, but it longs to be read in transition. It’s a book that demands a change in environment, a change of perspective even. What’s better than an airplane? I can picture it now – reading a chapter, then looking up to see mountains floating by. There’s not much more that inspires creativity than that!
What I’ll be journaling is just what I’m anticipating. I am expecting to have some unignorable encounters with God on this trip. I have a sense that I’ll come back home from this month in Costa Rica with some clear next steps for the next year. So while I’m transitioning from one country to the next, I’ll be journaling some of those thoughts and feelings that come up. No prompts or questions, just awareness of what’s already happening in and around me.
Plane and simple.
How do you like to spend your time on a plane?
