Blown Away

When my parents emigrated to Australia in the late forties from war-torn Europe they settled initially in a Melbourne suburb where the survivor community first ‘dropped anchor’. Our house was right in the flight path of the main airport nearby at the time. As a youngster I became fascinated by planes and could distinguish all the older models and different local and overseas logos. Maybe that is why I am so comfortable to this day, flying so extensively around the world each year.

At this moment I find myself in Houston, at an airport hotel, and my window faces one of the runways head-on, and I still find myself spending extended time watching the elegance of a takeoff with absolute admiration and excitement. I experience a silent thrill of being aware that thousands of tons of metal is defying gravity and emulating the secret of bird wings. I am so engaged with the fascination that the pioneers of flight, going back to Da Vinci and earlier, possessed.

Yet, observe the plane’s takeoff closely and you can discern that the nose and body are not flying in a linear path. The whole plane seems to be shifting sideways as it swoops upwards, seemingly pushed laterally by an invisible hand, adopting the gait of some dogs, who, watched from behind seem to have their front paws moving off-centre relative to their back feet, their bodies at an angled trajectory to the line of movement.

 Why is that, I wondered?  Until I learned that no flight is ever on course! So how do we all seem to reach our destinations? Because the flight path is being constantly corrected, so that the theory can fit the facts. The wind conditions, temperature and humidity are constantly moving the plane sideways, a lateral list, and the combination of on-board computers and pilot’s acumen maintains an on-going correction mode.

So is the nature of our lives. We set a trajectory towards a goal. Then we spend every day dealing with all the exigencies that push us off-course – delays, unexpectables, weather, people, health, information.  We may even change course midway. But every day is spent in correcting our life’s flight pattern. Those who don’t, never reach their destination.

The success story occurs when we begin to understand much better our design, the capacities of our engine, the load we are carrying, our setting and our brain’s computer. Then we can make much more effective ongoing corrections to our movement of body, mind and consciousness, to accord with our intended flight-path.

Remember the least error of 1% in calculations of a ‘mars-shot’ means that the space vehicle can miss its target by millions and billions of miles! That is the metaphor of life.

So make sure that your instrumentation – skills of self-mastery and wisdom – are operating at all times. Or the winds of change will blow you away!