Goodbye Dallas…

So far back in time it seems like another universe, when I was a teenager still in high school I took flying lessons. I did remarkably well and by my fifth flight hour my instructor had me doing everything from pre-flight to landings, it was just when he said I would have to go to ground school and learn the book work that I stopped showing up for lessons. I am saying all this to emphasize the fact that I really love to fly. From the small bush planes, that in Alaska flew so low you could see the claws of a rampaging grizzly, to the awesome sound of power that the ‘Blue Angles’ jets made when they hit the afterburners while only a few feet off the runway.

So it comes as quite a surprise to me as I sat in here in my plane at the end of the runway in Dallas awaiting the best part of commercial flying where the engines roar increases at that last second and you are pushed back into the seat as the plane works to defy the laws of gravity, that I was not as happy as I usually am on take off. I looked over out the window and saw the terminal shrinking in size and I had the feeling of loss not excitement or happiness at the thought of returning home. I have visited my family here in Texas before but I know this trip has been very different. Maybe a stronger bond was created because of the longer time spent here. Maybe it was the joy I received when playing with my grandchildren or the time spent with my son and his wife, I just do not know. I do know now that pictures, phone calls and memories are no substitute for being with them.

I also realize more than ever after this visit, that family is an important part of my journey down ‘life’s road’…

and that as the plane fly’s further away from my family…

there is an empty feeling where my heart once was…