On the plane, May 22, 2013
It’s 5pm when I board the flight from Hongkong heading to Saigon, Vietnam. After the hustle bustle of China, I find the flight quite unusual with just myself among empty seats. We pull out as scheduled but gotta wait another 20 minutes before getting a signal to take off. Obviously the morning storm in Hongkong has created quite a situation here with plenty of delayed flights patiently waiting in line. After a while, we find ourselves up in the air without any drama.
30 minutes after take-off, we suddenly get sucked into a turbulent area. You know the feeling when it gets all bumpy and rocky and sometimes you find yourself fallen…. At that very moment, all that you think can be controlled in this world turn meaningless. At that very moment, one learns that it is a fine line between life and death. Nothing, nothing is permanent….
What if the plane crashes?, I ask myself. What if I die today? Would I have any regrets?
I have definitely lived and loved to the full extent. I have certainly made a lot of mistakes along the way. And surely I have hurt some people in this lifetime with my absolute ignorence. What has been done cannot be un-done. But how I live my life in the present does matter. The present will soon become the past and the future is one’s present.
No regrets! At least I have been living in mindfulness. No worry about the past. No expectation for the future. It’s all about the present. It’s all about this very moment. As I take a deep breath, the captain informs us that we would get out of the turbulence in another minute. Sometimes that one minute defines who you are.
One is all. I am the universe!