WTWS 25 – Life Is Just Too Short To Sweat The Small Stuff

It is not quite what I had expected for my travel day. I knew in advance that travelling back to the Virgin Islands after my extended vacation, that I would have approximately five hours stay over at the Princess Juliana International Airport on the island of St. Martin. I mapped out what I thought was the perfect plan of how I would spend the hours. My time would be split into two. 

First, I will take a cab to the Dutch city of Philipsburg and maximize on some duty free shopping at my favorite store and then, I will go back to the airport, hook up to the internet, do some socializing and to update my pages.

I boarded my flight out of the RLB International Airport in St. Kitts for the thirty minutes flight over to St. Martin. It was a very smooth flight. 

I approached the immigration officer and handed her my paper work. She looked up at me and as she pointed me to the security check point to go to the gate where my connecting flight would leave from, she politely said, “that’s it, you already have your boarding pass, you go that way.” I knew my plan, so I replied, “I know but I am headed into the city.” “Great,” she replied. “You can even go to one of the nearby restaurants and have lunch. Have a great day!” “Thank you, I said.

I did not make it past the airport exit sliding door. In hindsight, all I can say now is I had a premonition. 

I took a few steps back and as I sat down, I distinctly heard, “The storm will come, but know that Jesus is right there with you in the eye if the storm.”

I thought to myself, storm? What storm? There are beautiful rays of sunshine on the outside! I paused because by then the hunger pangs had kicked in. As beautiful as my plan was, any idea of lunch was completely overshadowed by my appetite for duty free shopping.

I headed to the nearby food court, grabbed a bite and sure enough by the time I was finished with lunch, it was now very dark on the outside. The heaven was quenching the thirsty earth with a rather constant and heavy downpour, thunder applauded and could be heard in the distance as it rumbled its way through, while streaks of lightening parted the thick cloud sky from the top to the bottom. The storm had made its way through and plan A was no longer remotely possible.

With approximately 3 hours and 50 minutes still to go before I board my connecting flight, I proceeded to clear my next security check point on the way to the departure gate waiting area. One more check point and baggage screening area and there I was standing before another officer who had a puzzled look on her face as she scanned through my documents.

She said, “You’re leaving later this afternoon, aren’t you.” I said, “Yes.” She replied, “You’ll be bored inside there.” To myself I am was saying, not really. I’ve got plans to go online and that would be more than enough to pass the time. I scurried my way through until I found the perfect little spot near power outlets just in case I needed battery back up power.

But she was so right. The long and short of the matter – my roaming services, they all failed. No telephone service to contact my loved ones to let them know where and was and that I was okay, no internet service and even those networks that were showing up as unsecured/open where you log on without a password, I just could not get the connection to my devices.

Well, sigh!!! I did not feel like reading from my kindle. The breaking news on CNN was just heartbreaking of school shooting, murder and death. What was a girl to do? That’s when it dawned on me, that must be my storm that day, but guess what, life is just too short to sweat the small stuff!

It was the longest five and a half hours. It felt like a day or two. I made several trips to the restroom like a kid who just could not keep still.

But life is a journey. You move and you transition through the time while sojourning here on earth. The journey is filled with terrains, valleys, meadows, potholes, speed bumps, rivers, streams, storms, tests, trials, affliction and tribulations! When we come up against them, worry is never an option because truth be told, most of the things we worry about, we have no control over them. Sometimes you will win, sometimes you loose and all of the time there is a lesson to be learned. You take it, run with it and grow from it!

Life is just too short to sweat the small stuff!

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