Originally published in LLL US Western Division’s Connections #91, September/October 2000
It was a subdued crowd that night on the airplane from Denver to Chicago. Hot and dispirited, we’d all had to make new travel arrangements after a three-hour delay. I’d phoned home to report that my connecting flight to Pittsburgh had been cancelled and that I’d let them know my new arrangements when I knew what they were. Many of us sprawled in our seats sighing with the aggravation of it all.
And then, in the quiet of the plane, a clear, high little voice started singing.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder where you are;
Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky;
Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder who you are.
The singer was a tiny four-hear-old girl I’d noticed at the gate with her parents hours before. She was so excited about flying on a plane and had her nose to the huge window watching the ground crews until our boarding started. Her face pressed to her little window in row 21, she now sang to the star she’d noticed in the black skies illuminated with distance lightning. Here we were 39,000 feet above the Midwest in a huge metal airplane, sitting in comfort with drinks, food, pillows, blankets, and a movie, and a little child reminded me of the wonder of flight over seven miles above the earth. It may have been some of the most beautiful singing I’d ever heard.
I slept that night on a cot in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and was awakened at 4:30 AM to move on to the gates where several hours later I flew standby to Pittsburgh. I then waited for two hours until my son Sam finally woke up to answer our cell phone and hear I needed a ride. (Our louder, regular phone had been knocked out by lightning the night before.) Sam drove up an hour later to pick up his rumpled mom at the airport curb.
There can be aggravations, delays, and cancellations in our work as Leaders and administrators as well. Remembering the magic in our work can take some effort.
At our TEAM 2000 meeting in Denver, the lovely Rocky Mountains were obscured by haze from nearby wildfires. But we shared sunny walks, varied and nutritious cafeteria meals, late-night dorm-room talks, stunning talents in a lively show, an ice-cream social on a breezy patio, and group discussions of departmental challenges and solutions. We were gifted with hugs, insights, inspiration, and fun. Those memories of camaraderie and connections will always be clear and twinkling.
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