I’m flying in a plane over a mind boggling landscape. There’s misty clouds rolling over flat Earth in one direction meeting the jagged edge of a mountainscape in another direction and then suddenly like a scene from a film where all textures melt into the sand dunes of a desert. I’m at peace in the haze of sound that is airplane flight. Like the hum of a sound machine it’s leaving me more in tune with my own thoughts and state of mind. I love to fly. Not for the standard issued discomfort of strangers up on your grill or the tight quarters but for the reminder of how fucking tiny each of us is. How any of our troubles that often feel so HUGE are nothing when we take a peek from a birds eye view. Perspective is everything.
How would life be if we just decided that all of our tortured thoughts are just that, thoughts and not reality. There’s a difference folks and we create such intense Copperfield level illusions that we find ourselves in a pinch or a bind or a brouhaha (I’ve been dying to use that word lately) with no one other than ourselves. Even when we’re at odds with others, the truth/heart/core of it is that the conflict is just an outward manifestation of some shit we need to work out with ourselves. Let that one work over you.
Day in and day out we’ve got a running list of stories that we tell ourselves. X=Y because of A or B. He or she is this because of that or that. I am this because of this reason. Is any of it really true? Is it? Dip your toes in the question.
This blog project, these 21 days leading up to my 40th birthday are an experiment. I wanted to know where my mind goes when faced with the figurative paper and pen. I wanted to know where I’m at in my life. 40 as a great excuse to check in. So here I am today. On a flight to Las Vegas to balance my Gemini self. The mountaintop retreat needed a dose of good ‘ol entertainment, room service, a lush bed and all the other stuff a nice hotel stay in the middle of the desert can offer. It’s also a break from the usual routine, something that we all need. What happens when we take ourselves out of our comfort zone? I’m not saying the Las Vegas is a giant jump out of my comfort zone at all. For me, what keeps inspiration going is to see new things, to visit new cities, to notice how life moves and take shapes for others, to imagine myself in the scenario, to watch how the sun looks on different landscapes, to see regional architectural themes, to watch people perform their heart out on stage and to allow myself to just recalibrate.
It all begins on the plane to remind myself that we are tiny creatures on a big spinning orb. From way up here I can imagine new ideas and remember that all is as it should be. From up here, I feel as excited as a kid on their first airplane ride to visit Disney World for the first time. I remember me being that little kid one hot summer back in PA. I was so excited before we left for the airport that I got the hiccups. That excitable curious kid still lives inside of me 30 years later. Last night, the hiccups returned.