Up, Up and Away....

Recently while cleaning out and organizing journals, I found a note  from 1997 which was written, scrawled would be more appropriate, while I traveled from Virginia back to Texas.  I was happily surprised since it's all I have left of anything written from that year.  Writings and journals from that year as well as the years before had not survived moves and reorganizations.  I filed everything away so I could easily look through them and I attached the little 3 page note I had written while on the airplane to the front of the 1998 journal and put them all away.  The little note kept coming to mind, so I got it out again with the thought of perhaps sharing it here.  Once I read it again, it seemed like a good idea to do just that, so here it is just as my thoughts flowed from me without changes or corrections...well, one correction which you will see as you read.

    (flying home from VA)                                                                                  9/24/97

We started off at an altitude of 31,000 ft, now we are about 35,000 because of turbulence.  Earlier, you could see nothing outside the plane because of the thick clouds-barely even the tip of the wing.  Now that we've risen above the clouds, you can see blue skies, sunshine and the clouds beneath.  It all reminded me of the poem Eagles Flight, which I wrote some years ago.  10 years to be exact.  [it was 20 years, to be exact!]  It speaks of going along on eagles flight to see the "workings of God on plains of light."  And now I considered what it takes to go along on eagles flight-those birds who fly higher than any other.  This was not considered when I wrote the poem, I just wanted to go there. 

But as we were cruising  at 31,000 ft., and you  couldn't  see past the wing tip, and the turbulence "turbulated," it was unsettling.  But I reminded myself how God is in control knowing I'm His and He is more powerful than anything, and further, nothing by any means could hurt me (as I felt Him speak to me in my spirit and chose to accept it) I thanked Him for that certainty for myself and all those aboard the plane, and the aircraft itself.  Then, as the plane began shaking again a little more, I felt much calmer.  At this time I noticed that we had begun to climb-and soon were above all that seemed so troublesome.  That's when the poem came to mind, and with it, the simple reminder and deeper understanding of what it takes to get on a higher plain, and the fastest way is to go straight through the turbulence, facing the struggle, which is common to us all, and go forward.  The light will break through when you're on the right path. 

One thing I've discovered which is still absolutely true even after 20 years is this: the best way through turbulence is UP. God, when He's your personal Pilot, will take you there. He's the only One who can.

And just in case you've wondered about the poem, it's from a little collection of inspired poetry I wrote over a period of two years in the late '70's which I aptly titled Rising, and here is the one mentioned:


                                                        Eagle's Flight

Contained in earthen vessels,

these spirits that should soar,

       above the  earth as eagles-

whose flight my heart adores.

      Transparent thoughts do take me

along on eagle's flight,

       to see the mighty workings

of God on plains of light.

      With flesh and bones unable

to reach the mountaintop,

      my spirit reaches onward,

toward heights beyond the top.

     

  For no bounds knows my spirit,

ev’n though now it’s contained,

      in an earthen vessel fitted,

while this journey yet remains.

AJBB 1978