To stand in a security line in any airport across the globe, between the period of December 16th and December 24th, is to feel the peak of pressure of a year gone by. Exponentially more people, going more places, in a rush, with stuff in tow, and little patience packed in carry-on. And nerves can be felt. People crowd, people get cross, patience thins and thins and thins. It is an annual event, a global migration of festive cheer yet chaos, a natural nomadic phenomena – we go excitedly to those we love, growling at those in between, too tired and tested to show consideration and compassion for strangers.
Peak travel period, peak pressure, a peak into how anxiously people across the globe look to travel to ensure their hope are realised. And yet we growl! The routine of lining up to remove laptops, belts, shoes, liquids – a routine experienced hundreds of times through the year, just becomes irritating. Especially when those in front become bottlenecks. The reality of the complexity of heightened levels of passengers, more and more parents with distracted little people and plenty of little bottles and other bits and pieces to place in bins, becomes magnified and unable to me pacified. The possibility of pausing and pulling back more and more unlikely.
Which is why…..
‘Tis the season to reboot.
It is these trying times that bring out our true colours – the softest and most sparkly as we so hope to share, and yet often the darkest and most prickly that can even give ourselves a scare.
It happens, it’s natural, and it’s ok….as long as it is corrected, with patience and ideally kindness, “I’m sorry / Please, you first / Can I help you” is all we need to say. As foreign as that thought may be in that deeply trying travel moment.
Our ability to go from here to there, from work to play, from laptops to loves ones, in one simple flash of an itinerary, is a remarkable thing. We all get to where we ultimately need to. And we are so blessed to do so. This gift is something never to be forgotten. Will the travel season be testing? Absolutely. Will we make it through unscathed? No question about it.
The trick to surviving the pressure of year-end, especially for the business/busyness nomads of the world? Exhale, remind oneself of the blessing of the here, now, where to next and why….and move forward.
However busy air traffic control, Santa never fails to deliver.
Merry travels to all, and to all a good flight.
Copyright: ANITA MENDIRATTA 2014