At the Arrival Gate

Donald's back in town, and we're staying on Vineland Avenue this time around. We've come back to our roots, back to roost.

This visit was arranged at the last minute, mom booked his flight on Sunday and he arrived three days later. It's hard to explain the planning, the neurotic panic, that goes into preparing these visits from my tiny, second floor Providence apartment when we have months of notice. With only days to plan, the pressure was on! Dad coming to town requires finding a place to stay that doesn't mind taking in two long-term guests. It means packing up my own suitcase though I'm only going a town or two over: work and play clothes, hair products, laptop, kindle, cameras, phone charger, glasses (forgot those!). This time around the pre-visit planning also involved finding a dog-sitter willing to live in the aforementioned apartment and to take care of the pup I have raised to be as needy and high maintenance as any self-respecting Yorkie could be. Stepping up to the plate to do some of the heaviest lifting this time around are: Meghan on dog duty (or "Mamma Meghan" as Pax would call her- if, ya know, he wasn't a dog and could talk), and Tawn and Sarah offering up the accommodations. Since travel plans were made at the last minute, having a manager that understands the complex nature of Donald's needs has been invaluable- I put in for vacation time twelve hours before taking two and a half days out of the office. It truly does take a village to pull it all off. We were one busy village in the days leading up to Donald's recent arrival. Unsettled, and rushing until the minute he landed...

Then, suddenly, I was there again. Standing, nervously awaiting the moment that I'd see dad wheeled into the glass elevator at T.F. Green Airport. In just a few minutes I would see his smiling face and in that instant, if only for a moment, the stress and anxiety of the weeks or days before would melt away. I was one person in a crowd of more than fifty people I had never met, and though we were "strangers", at the arrival gate that word is synonymous with "family" because we were all in this together; we looked each other in the eyes, smiled and talked as we waited to hug and kiss our loved ones. I stood amongst people holding signs, taking pictures, and updating their Facebook statuses while the Starbucks baristas called out orders for a "Skinny Chai Latte" and "Caramel Macchiato" to a crowd so high on adrenaline that these caffeinated beverages were merely ordered in an attempt to fill the empty minutes before we were reunited with the special people getting off the plane. Warmth, love, anticipation  radiated through all of us, and any hurt, anger, or stress that we might have been harboring was suspended in that shared moment. Amongst this family of strangers, I was reminded that this was what it's all about- this is the essence of our humanity. Our interaction was fleeting, and it was unlikely that I would ever see these people again, but in that moment our sole (soul!) focus was singular. Different though we were, for a time we were united in love. We all went our separate ways as the passengers arrived, but I'd like to think that we each carried a little bit of that shared energy with us... and will carry it for longer than we might know.

Ani sang it far more poetically than I could ever write it, so I leave you with a song.