Make it Flow

by heathervescent

Airport travel these days generally requires that you wait in a myriad of lines and my recent travels were no exception. So what do you do when you are waiting for almost an hour to pass the time? Practice a little meditation, visualization and magic.

I was waiting in the customs line in the Montreal airport yesterday. My traveling companion and I had booked through the same airline; however my flight turned out to be on another carrier and I had to wait in line at another counter. My new line was long and not moving at all, so I told my partner to go on ahead and I would try to get though customs to meet him before his flight.

My line continued to be stagnant and barely progressed. It seemed that every person at the counter had some major problem. I usually check in online or at a check-in kiosk, but there were none in this airport. I wasn't checking any baggage so I only needed my boarding card, while everyone else had multiple bags. Finally I got to the front of the line. Five minutes later I had the boarding card in my hand and I was merrily off, only to be met with a line for customs five times as long as the one I had just finished.

I tried to take a Zen moment and breath. I would get through the line and catch my airplane. But as I stood there with other impatient passengers, I got more and more frustrated. I am not a patient person and it takes much of my energy to endure a long line - especially when I have everything in efficient order and am waiting because of someone else’s' inefficiency.

Just then, the Rabbi who presided over the wedding I had attended over the weekend walked up. We had had many good conversations over the course of the weekend and I really liked him. He was also waiting in line to get through customs. I asked him to join me so we could pass the time in conversation and perhaps gain some enjoyment from the necessity of waiting.

As we chatted the line continued to move at a the pace of a wounded snail and, as enlightened as we were, we both were getting irritated at the stupidity of the wait. Of the inefficiency causing the bottleneck. I tried to focus on the chance meeting we had to converse, before heading to opposite ends of the globe. But then, at some point in our conversation of the metaphysical and ethereal, I exclaimed that we just needed to use our power of visualization to move the line. To see where the energy was blocked and gently nudge it forward, loosening the blockage. I said this with amusement and partial belief, because as much as I have directly experienced the awesome, I am still skeptical.

At the same time, I abandoned my skepticism. I thought our line and saw the blockages of energy, the stagnation, the places where movement couldn’t happen. I took a breath and when I exhaled I envisioned those blockages working themselves out. I saw the energy moving; and almost instantly the line started moving. It moved quickly in long spurts with short pauses. We covered the rest of the way (which was about half the line) rapidly and easily chatting all the way. Neither of us said anything about the dramatic change in the line movement, although I distinctly noticed the change. We continued our conversation, easily passed through customs and made it to the gate with time for coffee. He got on his flight and I still had time to meet my partner at his gate before his flight left.

Later when my own flight was high in the sky and I was watching the clouds out the window, I thought of the three of us. Each of us with a different trajectory, seemingly away from each other, but I felt closer and connected. I knew I would meet each of them again - in their own perfect time. In the meantime, I have the power to remove blockages and smoothen the flow, if I only acknowledge it.

| 06/20/06 | Commentary