I’m currently sitting at the airport about to catch a flight to New Zealand… that I was supposed to be on 3 days ago. It didn’t exactly go as planned.
[Note: What you’re about to read will probably sound like a rant and quite uncharacteristic of me – but just keep reading through to get to the gold.]
I arrived at the airport the day of my flight with plenty of time to spare, feeling refreshed and inspired after a 22-hour layover in Honolulu (something I had planned to give myself a jet-lag reprieve and get a little beach time after 2 weeks in wintry NYC).
However, when I left – 3 days late – I was feeling the exact opposite of well-rested. I was frazzled, frustrated by injustice, and feeling incredibly emotional.
I won’t bore you with the many little aspects of negligence that added up to the airlines causing me to miss my flight, but suffice it to say I have never before seen so much negligence, manipulation of power, and injustice from anyone, let alone from any company I’ve ever requested services of.
I was shocked by their lack… just their lack.
They knew they were manipulating me and threatened to cancel my flight if I posted about my experience on social media. (Needless to say that if you follow me on social media stay tuned for the story there!)
I was sent away from the airport without a confirmed flight out and without compensation for a hotel room for the minimum of 3 nights I’d be grounded there (and that was if they could confirm me on the next flight 3 days later; otherwise, I’d be there even longer).
To top it all off, I was humbled to have to say that I did not have the money for a hotel room for those 3 days. Between transitions in Modern Day Sorcerer, consciously creating a flux in revenues, and thousands of dollars of unexpected financial changes in the past few weeks, I hadn’t budgeted for the additional 3 nights in a hotel and literally didn’t have the money.
Yes, I was stranded!
To make matters worse, for the first time ever, my partner and I were struggling with some very serious challenges that were triggering a significant amount of emotion on my part that day.
As I was figuring out what to do, I found myself experiencing more fear and feeling more unsafe than I had in a very long time. Anger ran through me to the core. And it took everything in me to not get caught up in a victim mentality or get lost in worst-case scenario stories.
But even though it felt like one of the worst days ever — it actually turned out to be one of the best days ever for my growth.
What was catalyzed in me was a plethora of emotion that ran deep, and there was core wounding within me making itself known on a new level.
After a deep surrender to whatever the higher plan was for me (thankfully resulting in a friend finding me a gracious host) and a good night’s sleep giving my body and spirit time to process the lessons, I found myself entirely on the other side of the experience.
It took me 24 hours to move through the feelings. I knew that what was coming up ran deep, so I allowed it all to flow without judgment. And what came from it was magical.
I emerged a day later – rooted in a next level version of power and leadership. I had transformed into an even more self-sourced yet supported version of me.
I emerged with the mirrors in my partnership being shown for both of us to move forward in our own growth, with clarity on what was being asked of me, and with a feeling of being alive and ready to take on the actions of the guidance that I realized had been gifted to me through the experience.
Yes – all of that transformation in the course of about 36 hours that I thought was my worst day ever had been gifted to me.
