Circles and cycles

Everything is circular. Have you ever noticed that everything seems to go wrong when you're already having a bad day or you're in a bad mood? And, sometimes, you wake up and just seem to have a silver spoon firmly planted in your mouth the whole day long...

Occasionally, there are days that go against those rules. On Thursday, I had one of those days, that was an interesting mix of the good and the bad. In one way, it was the worst day a mother could have. I had to tell my baby boy good-bye for the third time in less than 9 months. (Luckily, this time will be a shorter separation than the last one, but that does little to soothe the ache in my soul...) With a heart that was breaking, I pretty much did a sleep-walking shuffle through the check-in and boarding processes at the airport, and most everything went by in a blur... The first thing that happened to break the cycle, though, was that the airline was offering a GREAT deal on upgrading tickets to business class. Every person who has ever flown on a trans-Atlantic flight will understand why I jumped on that offer with both feet and credit card at the ready! I boarded the plane and thought I would just collapse and sleep the whole way, but I simply could not put my mind and heart at ease. So, I decided to take full advantage of every single benefit my upgrade afforded me and I said "yes" to every snack, drink, bottle of water the flight attendant offered (I stole a line from my great-aunt and told the attendant that "I came on as a passenger, but I'm goin' off as cargo!"), and watched their super-duper individual TV setup the entire time! Even with all the distractions and with food coming at me seemingly every hour :o), I still cried off and on the whole way across the Atlantic. (Lucky for me, you are expected to be red-eyed and bleary after a trip like that!)

The flight attendant who was assigned to my area of the plane was a very nice lady named Suzanne, and I spoke to her quite a bit throughout the flight. Making small-talk, she asked what my purpose in Italy had been, and I told her I had been visiting my son and my husband and that led to the standard discussion of military life and family hardships. She didn't gush over me, or make a big show of pity or even empathy, but she was genuinely nice to me the entire flight. I regret that I did not have a chance to thank her at the end of the flight. I also regret that more people (like my crabby seatmate for example, who did little more than grunt at Suzanne throughout the trip) are not more pleasant to the attendants who do their best to make the flight pleasant.

Well, I realize that all of this matters very little in the grand scheme of things, but this woman went out of her way to be nice to me at a time when I truly needed it, and so today I did a few nice things myself. I left a little extra tip at breakfast; I held the door for the lady behind me at the gas station; I drove a VERY long way to tell my family how much I love them and spent a nice long visit with my grandmother, not even talking much, just sitting and enjoying each other's company... (Okay, those last two really shouldn't count, because I should have done them anyway, but still....