In the Wizard of Oz, the Cowardly lion does not understand that courage means acting in the face of fear, which he does frequently. Eventually, he discovers he had courage the entire time and never needed to seek for it.
Like many other people, I am no stranger to harrowing experiences and having to face fearful events. Some examples of these include: being thrown from a raft while whitewater rafting in Colorado and barely being able to get back in since the current of the river was so strong it was pulling me away fast; once being a first-responder to a car accident where two people were thrown from their car in which one was dead on scene while I was having to care for the (drunk) survivors while waiting for an ambulance; watching an avid biker fall over right in front of me and as if he had just suffered from a stroke or heart attack while I was in New Jersey visiting and calling 9-1-1 while explaining where I was standing in my unfamiliar surroundings...these are stories that just begin to explain the moments in my life that has shaped who I am today...
On Friday, August 26, 2011, I experienced yet another one of life's "courage builders" that had me silently reciting the beginning to the series of Rosary prayers that many Catholics do during funerals or saying their last respects. We boarded Etihad flight EY-93 from Abu Dhabi to Larnaca, Cyprus at 8:30 a.m. Since our aircraft was small, we were all bussed to our plane on the tarmac. While on the bus, a few rowdy men, speaking Greek, made their presence well known by acting rude and arrogant. The passengers of flight EY-93 were soon about to find out that these young Cypriot men would soon be the cause to one of the worst airline experiences most of us would probably ever experience. Of course, I was already suffering from jet lag from a previous flight I had taken from the USA just a mere 48 hours earlier and I had high expectations that this particular flight would be relaxing and uneventful in every way imaginable. Well, those expectations were quickly unmet when at about the time the plane had just reached its plateau from our ascension, the Captain announced we had to make an emergency landing in Doha, Qatar. So instantly, we all feel the plane descend rapidly and come to a screeching halt on the tarmac in the middle of the airfield in Doha. The Captain announced that there was a bomb on the plane and we all needed to RUN! I’ve never experienced slow motion like I did at that moment in time, for what was probably only 30 seconds of time, I imagined the plane exploding into tiny pieces with me as nothing more than just a bit of ash billowing into the air right along with it. Luckily for me, that fear was quickly subsided as I ran in my 4" sandal wedges out to the middle of the airfield while practically kissing the ground under each step I took.
In the end, it was discovered that the bomb threat was a hoax and one young man from Cyprus was arrested for the incident while three others were apprehended and questioned.
In the end, it was discovered that the bomb threat was a hoax and one young man from Cyprus was arrested for the incident while three others were apprehended and questioned.
Thanks be to GOD, that in the end, our trip to Cyprus was nostalgic and relaxing. The Mediterranean Sea has a beautiful way of releasing any stress a person may be harboring inside, so feelings of peace and calmness come to mind when I think of the country of Cyprus and I am already looking forward to my next visit there in 2012.
Life is pure JOY when one is resilient!
“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.”
- Gilda Radner
One more thing...luckily I had my camera and was able to document this experience. Feel free to watch the slide show I created from this experience. Click on the link below to watch.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Would love to know what you're thinking, please comment!