Hope & Journal Entry #1

Notes from an airplane

Hope Matters

Hey, Hope Buddies!

I want to share even more personal thoughts I have from time to time. So, I’ve decided that I’ll occasionally drop one of my journal entries here at Hope & Coffee Matters. They can have many points or none at all. 🤭 Take from these musings what you will.

💜,

Parthenia

12:00 noon

As I make my way to Detroit aboard this plane, I marvel at the number of people (particularly window-seaters) who are content to exist in darkness, when there’s such beautiful light outside waiting to greet us. What does that say of us, that we’re bothered by light? Does that also mean we’re bothered by Light?

The flight is almost completely darkened, with the exception of about 5 [open] windows. I’m typically a window-seater and, through last minute rebookings of a canceled flight and one to which I arrived too late to check my bag, I’ve been relegated to an aisle seat. 🙄 Oh, how I would’ve loved to have opened that 6th window and indulged in my plane-riding ritual of sky gazing and allowing myself to not only see but feel the journey as we take off and land.

These last two days have been event-filled with disappointments followed by joys that I couldn’t have manufactured. When we choose to ride out the disappointments, with complaining and frustration [swiftly] replaced by expectation and the leading of the Holy Spirit, it’s miraculous what can happen. I got the chance after a canceled flight yesterday to spend time with a dear loved [that I hadn’t seen in quite a while] and get some rest, required by a body that had done entirely too much in the week. A girl’s excursion — interrupted by yet another rebooking — has turned into time spent with myself and a return to tuning out the world around me with calming music, a good book, and time to write…

Prior to this trip, I’d only used the music to tune out Son or other immediate distractions while reading texts or writing papers as a student. However, the busy airport and noisy flights called for silencing the world with noise-cancelling earbuds and a playlist I’ve entitled, Tunes to Write & Read By. In this darkish cabin where, at anytime a flight attendant or other passenger will come whizzing by for one reason or another; the music, the book, and my journal are a refuge.

My tired body is excited about landing and making my way to the AirBnB I’ve booked for the night. My empty belly is excited about whatever food I might find to delight my palate. My mind is surprisingly refreshed and not overrun with thought. I credit [this to] the time I took to dial out [from] the busy world moving around me.

As we endure the turbulence and prepare to land within the next 30 minutes, I’m missing my window seat and am sad that I’ll have to put my pen down soon. I want more of this, and not just in airports and on planes. I intend to use this as one of my new rest practices I’m cultivating in resistance to the violence that has been systemically inflicted upon me (Thanks, Tricia Hersey*.).

I am a revolutionary, and this revolution will not be televised, because it’s internal and intentional.

*I’m currently reading Tricia Hersey’s Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto, a life-changing and life-giving work for those who desire to know what rest is, why it’s important, and want to develop their own practice. Click the line to purchase it from one of my favorite book and coffee shops.

Coffee Matters

Coffee Buddies, stay tuned for new coffee ☕️. 😉

What are you hoping and sipping this week?

I appreciate you taking the time to read this hopeletter about my life and coffee. Please share with a friend who could use a little hope or coffee recommendation.