Lessons from the Cockpit has a blog exchange this week. Seattle writer Katherine Jenkins wrote the great piece below. Her book, Lessons from the Monk I Married, was recently picked up for publication. Please check out her complete bio at the end of her post. Be sure to read my post on her site as well by clicking here.
I have never flown a plane before, but I can only imagine how freeing that must feel. I do know that when I’m up in the air, there is a quiet, almost other-worldly feeling; I feel like I’m getting close to the source of life. There’s an eerie loneliness when you look out the window of a plane. It’s as if you and the passengers on your flight are the only ones who exist in the endless sky. The only change of scenery is the different shapes the clouds take. Sometimes you are in the clouds. Other times you soar above them and can finally detect their distinct shapes.
I usually request a window seat when I fly. I like to lean my head against the edge of my circular window and watch the view from above.
Recently, on a flight coming back from New York, I had the privilege of witnessing an endless sunset. We were flying to Seattle, so technically we were flying back in time. We moved fast enough to escape darkness. It was the longest sunset I had ever seen.
Some people are afraid of flying. I’m not a big fan of take-offs and landings. There’s always a risk involved. Once on the runway, the realization strikes that you have committed yourself to leaving the earth. There’s never a guarantee that you will touch down safely once airborne.
Whenever you do anything in life, there is a risk; especially when you try something new.
There’s the fear that you may never get off the ground. That you might fail. And what would people think if you failed?
And what if you do get off the ground and achieve great heights in your life? What will happen to the life you once knew? Will you always be looking back toward the ground, back toward where you once were and wishing you could return?
What makes us afraid of reaching our highest potential in life? What is so scary about soaring high?
In freedictionary.com, I found these four definitions of the word soar:
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Christopher Laney 
I'm please to announce my guest post on Katherine Jenkin's blog, "Lessons from the Monk I Married." Katherine spent every single day of 2010 blogging about 365 lessons she had learned or hoped to learn. I thoroughly enjoyed reading her insights.