Day Eight. And thus ends my Arizona journey. I am thankful. And I have a cold.
Day Eight: Home
It was going to be warmer today, and sunny, but, alas, I wouldn’t be enjoying much of it. It was time to finish packing and get myself to the airport for the flight home. Goodbye, Arizona! Florida, here I come!
Home. I can have more than one, can’t I?
It ended up being quite a long day, and my cold wasn’t helping. Because of the nasty weather plowing through the Dallas area, where my connecting flight was, my first flight from Phoenix was delayed by about an hour. No problem, because this time I had a 2-plus hour layover and I wasn’t worried about making the second flight.
We arrived in Dallas, then sat on the tarmac for 2 hours waiting to de-plane, 51st in the queue for an empty gate. You’d think that everyone would be ready to get their butts off the plane quickly, but, no. It took an inordinate amount of time for the overhead bins to be emptied and the passengers to get their acts together and their stuff and walk down the aisle and out the door. It’s a good thing the weather also delayed my next flight by an hour, but by the time I had dis-embarked, I was out of time.
I ran to catch my connecting flight.
We arrived in Panama City an hour late, at 10:30pm, and I was ready to be home and in bed. With my cold, my ears had made me excruciatingly aware, on both flights when we descended to a lower altitude, that they were unhappy. I still can’t hear out of my right ear.
Then we all stood around waiting for our luggage to show up on the carousel. Mine didn’t. Neither did about 10 others’ bags. So, we trooped over to the American Airlines counter where only one person was there, and he was definitely not in a hurry to take care of our issues. I timed it. It was about 20 minutes per person. Seriously. Anyway, my luggage will hopefully appear at some point later this evening (Sunday), since I’m clearly writing this the day after my arrival back in rainy Florida.
Yes, I typed rainy. A very rainy Florida. Where in the world is the sun?
But, enough of my whining. I am home safe and for that I am truly grateful.
I wanted to take a few minutes and re-cap my week in Arizona. My purpose in taking this vacation was two-fold. Since I’m an OCD person and a list-maker, I have a hard time just doing something only for fun. There has to be a purpose in it somewhere or I feel I’m not being the human I should be. Strange, I know.
I knew I needed some time off to just chill and get re-connected and grounded spiritually, and work on my book. And that needed time and space with no interruptions.
It worked perfectly.
The Holy Spirit helped me remember and then memorialize. Going back to the one place where I met God in an extra-special way after seven years of absence was like the reunion with a long-lost love. The years melted away as if they’d never been. The lessons I had learned in my desert wanderings came back to warm my heart.
When I said goodbye to Arizona in 2012, I begged God to let me someday return to live there. The separation has been long and, at times, heart-wrenching. But along the way, in all the towns and cities he has placed me since, I’ve been given grace upon grace, friends, and family, and plenty of peace.
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire granted is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13:12.
Arizona, this past week, was a beautiful gift given to me by my Heavenly Father and I will forever be eternally grateful.
Onward and upward!
