No GPS Coordinates Set: Our Continuous Voyage
As the artificially illuminated starry night fades with the carefully timed simulation of a natural sunrise, the sounds and aroma of breakfast service fill the cabin of this Boeing 777-300 bound for the infamous metropolis in the desert.
In the final stretch, our home in the sky is currently skirting around Baghdad—12 hours into our 8,534-mile journey from the Lone Star State to the UAE.
This flight has gratefully been uneventful. While I’m not afraid of flying per se, I admittedly felt a twinge of anxiety about boarding a cross Atlantic flight on Friday the 13th under a historic full moon.
The lackluster preamble to my epic inaugural trip to the Middle East, however, feels like an ironic dichotomy. Travel to the Middle East has pulled at my adventurous spirit for more than a decade and while the flight abroad feels blasé, my long-anticipated journey to the UAE can only be accurately expressed as “momentous”.
As curiously introspective as I find myself sitting in the quiet of a 14-hour flight, I must question when and where does a journey really begin and end?
Are we not always onboard one continuous voyage of self-discovery, self-love and an awareness for what we need to get and give during our time here on Earth?
Whether independently flying 37,000 ft above it “all”—the race, the expectations, the worry, the responsibilities, the complexities of the billions of cohabitating peoples and cultures—or, settled at home in our safe space with our loved ones; we are traveling in mind and spirit.
There is no doubt, that this trip abroad will be a memorable destination, both personally and professionally.
But the journey began before this itinerary to Dubai was booked, and it will continue.
No matter where you sit at this moment, embrace the present voyage that we are each gifted to be journeying—but often overlook. There is so much to learn, to embrace, to experience and to appreciate that has little to do with our geographical location. Learning to explore self-fulfillment, self-love and gratitude for all the cards stacked in one’s favor—and then to spread that love, kindness, and privilege to others—is where I need to take my journey.
