Make the Beaten Path

I should be used to magical things happening to me, but I'm still surprised when I experience it.

I spent 3 days straight with a new business colleague. We've been working together on a new project and I've extremely impressed with so much. She's smart, fun and we get along "like a house on fire". I haven't had this fun with tech work since 1999!

We're half-way through day 3. We've finished our meetings and are doing some last minute shopping before catching a cab to Logan airport and then the West Coast. For some reason all the on-ramps and tunnels are closed (not the one that collapsed) and our taxi driver is getting more and more frustrated. We're driving all around Boston. We swing by the conference center, back through downtown and then I see Boston Commons and the airport is the opposite direction. We've been in the cab for 40 minutes and our flight leaves in 50.

I keep calm. I know the technique our driver is using: leaving the herd to make a wide sweeping turn. But to do that you have to break really far away. Find the crack, the clear cow path and accelerate out of problems. Make the beaten path. I sit back and close my eyes. I meditate on a clear path and feel my body pressed against the seat because we're accelerating - out - of - problems! I continue to meditate until airplane exhaust fills my nostrils. It's been about 15 minutes and we've arrived to an empty airport. We zip through security and have a short wait at the gate before embarking.

My colleague and I have booked window and aisle seats in hope that our middle passenger doesn't appear. We're busy chatting away as the plane loads and our B seat arrives. She's this quiet, cute 14 year old that looks like Scarlett Johansson. A question popped out of my mouth and the three of us spend the next 6 hours talking, laughing and watching TV together. It was the kind of airplane ride that changes your life - all three of them. Someday that ride will go down in history - but for now - it's a secret. For a time.

Comments

[mc33]

Honored to have made the blog... That trip-cab ride- plane ride will go down as a life/business changing adventure/venture. The moment i started college i decided always to be inspired and challenged by what i do. I hear people talk about their "work" and their "real lives"- like they are not living at work. Much more inspirational to use what you really are to do what you really like and manage to make a "living". Thank you for re-igniting my dedication to inspiration.