Melissa Ann Goodwin

Melissa Ann Goodwin

Sunday, April 8, 2012

G is for Grace

The older I get, the more I realize how much grace I've been granted - how often I've been protected from harm, from making poor choices, from getting what I thought I wanted, from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Every time I pass a car accident that has just happened, I realize that some element of grace kept me from being there in that spot at the time. And, hardest of all, I've realized that so often when I thought things were going wrong, they were actually going right. And then there are the times when I was put in exactly the right place at precisely the right time - that's grace too.

I have a quick example from our experience with flying from Albuquerque to Indiana this past week. I'd booked us on American Airlines flights some time ago. Our itinerary had us leaving at about 6:30am, connecting through Dallas with a short layover, and arriving in Fort Wayne, Indiana at 5:30pm.

About a month ago, American notified us that our itinerary had been changed. Now our flight out of Albuquerque wouldn't leave until 12:30, we'd have a four hour layover in Dallas, and get to Fort Wayne at 10:30pm. This meant we'd have to get a hotel room in Ft. Wayne, instead of being able to drive to Elkhart the day of arrival.

I was annoyed and told AA that I had paid for a certain itinerary and I didn't understand why airlines are the only business where you can pay for one specific itinerary, and it's perfectly okay for them to give you something completely different. The example I gave them was if I sold them my 40 inch TV for $1000, but gave them a 19 inch TV instead. And, I said, they caused me to have to incur the extra expense of a hotel room that first night. Someone in customer service acknowledged my point and awarded us some extra airline mileage. But the itinerary itself couldn't be changed, because AA had completely changed their flight schedule.

Flash forward to this past week. On Tuesday, tornadoes hit the Dallas area, cancelling flights on Tuesday afternoon and on Wednesday morning. The ONLY flight that went from Albuquerque to Dallas on Wednesday - our flight day - was the 12:30 flight we'd been moved to when AA changed our itinerary a month ago. Because of our later itinerary, the flight from Dallas to Fort Wayne left with no problems at 7:05pm.

Had we still been booked on the earlier flight, it would have been cancelled. Who knows if we'd have been able to get on the later flight that day? Or on one the next? The whole start of our RV adventure would have been discombobulated. The annoying itinerary change actually worked out to our benefit when the day of travel came. That's grace.

So, next time you think you've been inconvenienced, take a breath. Maybe you're really being protected. I'll try to remember that too - it's usually something you only realize in retrospect.

Do you have some examples of grace to share?

P.S. If you've been following our RV adventure and didn't see my F post, take a look - I've put up the first pictures of us in our new RV home.

15 comments:

  1. Serindipity all the way. A lovely post, thank you.

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  2. Sometimes it's hard to see the good in things - until afterwards!

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  3. OMG, if that isn't the Universe working it's magic to protect you, then I don't know what is! I can't think of an example right now but I know things like this have happened to me :)

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  4. Love that glimpse of grace. My smoke detector kept going off one night in the middle of the night - there didn't seem to be any smoke and I wasn't sure whether to disrupt the condo complex by calling the fire department, so I took it down and popped the battery out. And then it went off again! The battery had somehow slid back in so it was touching the whatchamacalit. So I opened windows (though it was freezing out) and called the gas company the next morning. Turns out I had a gas leak - a rather dangerous one. And the smoke detector shouldn't have gone off for that. That was definitely my guardian angel and grace, for sure.

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    1. Wow Lynn - that detector would NOT let you take no for an answer - thankfully!

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  5. Some horrible things have happened to me in the past, but looking back I can see how those things have triggered the pleasant events that followed. I'm really glad for you that your flight was changed!

    Lynn's story above gave me goosebumps - definitely something was looking out for her!

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  6. Anonymous4/09/2012

    Wow, what an interesting post. Your angels were watching out for you. We've had times where our angels were watching out for us. Lyn's story was definitely one of those moments.

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  7. Anonymous4/09/2012

    A few years back when my parents were in the process of preparing to leave this world we were doing a LOT of driving ( an hour and a half there and back several times a week). A few times we were headed out to go but one thing or another kept making it difficult to the point where we just gave up and didn't go. Each time it turned out there was a very good reason why we were not supposed to go. Once a terrible snow storm blew up and if we had gone we would have been in the middle of it on the way home. I came down with the flu once and would have had to make the trip home in misery (not to mention exposing my folks to the bug) and one other time that stands out clearly, the very next day the tie rods broke in the car which I figure could have happened on that long trip (which included some bumpy country roads). So yes indeed.....grace, a gift from the universe, divine intervention....

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  8. This happens to me a lot and I am glad that I can see it now. My biggest one is my diagnosis with Dystonia. At first I was so angry and sad....but now I see all the blessings because of it. All the special people I have met and without the diagnosis, I wouldn't have been pushed to write, wouldn't be starting my photography business, etc. I could go on and on. :-) This is an awesome post, full of wisdom. Thank you and enjoy your travels today!

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  9. Great post. I am not sure about grace, or luck or even fate or karma. Things are way too random in the world for that.

    I am trying to read all the A to Z blogs, but coming back to the ones I really like.
    Looking forward to seeing what you do all month!

    Tim
    The Other Side
    The Freedom of Nonbelief

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    1. Hi Tim! I know not everyone thinks as I do about this. But there have been so many things like this in my life that it gets harder and harder for me to see them as random! Thanks so much for coming by - look forward to visiting you too.

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  10. I had trouble that same day. I had almost switched to an earlier flight, but decided last minute not to. Earlier flight was cancelled, so by staying late, I managed to make it home.

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    1. Exactly! We thought about trying to re-book through a different city, then decided to just go with it, and it all worked out...

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  11. Thanks everyone, for your comments. Lynn's story really did have us getting goosebumps, didn't it???

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