I am on a plane, again. It seems that I am on planes a lot lately. It tends to go in spurts.  I might go months without having to travel anywhere and then, bang, I find myself at a different airport every week.  I usually request aisle seats, mainly for convenience but today find myself in a window seat.  Sitting here looking out the window I am reminded of the very first time I traveled on a plane.  I was 21 and had been looking forward to taking a plane ride for a long time, since I was a little girl. It was always out of reach however, as my family always drove when we went anywhere.  I had to wait until I graduated from college and started working before I could finally get on an airplane.  I could not wait to see the view out the window and eagerly requested a window seat.

The year was 1987, pre-9/11, and airport procedures were much simpler.  Nonetheless I was glad to have a colleague with me to help walk me through the system.  The flight was from St. Louis to Las Angeles, a several hours trip, which promised good window time.  I still remember how excited I was at liftoff.  I was finally going to fly.    I had my nose pressed against the window most of the trip across the country taking in all of the sights, clouds included.  It was an adventure; it was magical.

Now many years and many, many trips later getting on an airplane for me has deteriorated to simply a means to get from point to point, like taking a bus or taxi ride.  The same holds true for most of us, I imagine.  Many times even when I am at the window I do not bother to look out.  But today I am.  And remembering,

I am remembering that it is an adventure to fly on an airplane.  Quite frankly, if you think about it, it is amazing that they fly at all.  While understanding the physics behind what keeps such a big metal ship in the air, how many of us, at some point in our lives have been drawn to the local airport to watch airplanes land and take off.  Watching plane after plane leave and arrive while being struck by the wonder of it all.  To see a large lumbering, graceful metal whale slowly roll down the runway and finally, at the last minute, get up enough speed to generate the lift needed to soar into the sky is something special.  And we take it for granted; this daily adventure occurring right under our noses.

As I look out the window today I can see the Mississippi river, its twists and turns gracefully charting the course followed by the many long river barges moving up and down the river, interested in keeping to the river’s deeper middle passage.  Looking closely it is even possible to see where it had, earlier this year, spread from its banks to flood the surrounding countryside.  Soaring like a large noisy bird at 35,000 feet I see a patchwork quilt of fields, different colors textures and sizes that mark the habitation of humans.  Highways run straight traveling in all directions heading through cities and around the checkerboard fields. Forests, or the remains of forests stand out in their isolation as civilization has reduced their footprint.  From this vantage point it is clear that mankind imposes geometrical order on our otherwise randomly organized planet.

At 35,000 feet you are sometimes flying with the clouds.  White puffy clouds, the kind that build slowly into dark, dangerous storm clouds, are my favorite to fly through.  They are like pillars in the sky and we dart in between them as if playing hide and seek.  When they turn into storm clouds they are still fascinating, but from a distance, as the tops billow into the well known anvil of marking a thunderstorm and lightening can be seen flashing inside.  Sometimes the clouds are in layers, one above and one below, and we fly in between caught in our own mysterious featureless world, no landmarks or indications that we are even moving at all except for the roar of the engines.   Who can imagine that we would one day be flirting with the clouds as we went from point to point.

To soar like a bird, gain a new appreciation of our planet and our footprint on it, all the while as much a part of the sky as the clouds. What an adventure!