I love airplanes and flying but I wonder if they have hindered our appreciation for the transition between one place to another. I've never crossed the Atlantic by any means other than an airplane.
It is a bit surreal. In January, I would have said, "I live in London." On the last day of January, I boarded a plane and seven hours later, I was in the USA and I had officially moved. The trip from Moz took a full day of travel. The transition is more startling. It only took a day to go from one place where clean water is scarce to another place where we are focused on buying excess material goods with our excess income.
A longer journey would not change the differences between locales, but perhaps the time to reflect would change the traveler.
Planes come equipped with a personalized entertainment system for each seat. (As a child, I can remember having a TV screen for the entire cabin. If you didn't like the movie, you listened to music or slept.) You might watch movies for the duration of a 19 hour flight from South Africa to the USA. An ocean liner today can cross the Atlantic in a week. When Henry Hudson crossed from Amsterdam to New York (in 1609), the crossing took two months.
Imagine a relocation journey taking two months. Days of ocean and waves and no land in sight. No entertainment system. No wi-fi. No seclusion except in thought. As an introspective person, I love the idea of having days to just look at the waves and the clouds and simply ponder. Time to consider where I've been and wonder where I am going. Time to write in my journal until I run out of words or pages.
I cannot explain my thankfulness that this past year has included time to consider my options. Had I needed to go from my last job, which finished in May, to looking for another job immediately, I would have been incredibly frazzled. Instead, through generosity and grace, I was able to take the time necessary to consider my next steps. I've been back in Pennsylvania for three weeks. In those three weeks, I've purchased a vehicle, gotten car insurance (for the first time on my own!), made decisions about where I will live, applied to academic programs, started job applications, took my computer to be fixed (which isn't possible but I am going to attempt some data recovery), and am considering my options in the areas of phones, computers, and more practical things like mattresses and winter coats. While it is sometimes overwhelming to make all of these decisions, it is possible because I have had time to consider my options, needs, and my Provider.
The title for this blog, The View from a Thousand Hills, comes from Psalm 50:10. The Lord says, "For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills." This verse reminds me that my future is in good hands, and those hands are not my own.
