not of this world

sitting at my gate in miami international, out of the corner of my eye i saw her motioning with a questioning look in her eyes. pulling off my earphones i tried to return in kind her gentle, soulful smile.

she was a sixty something, grandmotherly looking black woman who inquired whether i knew if there was any place where she could buy some water. “Well, yes, there are some gift stores and newstands up those stairs, but the flight to LAX is about to depart, they serve drinks on the plane, if you can wait…” “Oh do they now? Well, I’m not going on that flight, I be flyin’ to Tennessee, to see my sista’. But flying sho’ makes me nervous, and so I gots these nerve pills here to help me through it, only I don’t have any water to take ‘em down wit.” my thoughts briefly drifted, uncharitably, to the security nazis who minutes before had made me trash my unopened, fully sealed extra, but decided to let it go, again. “Well if this isn’t your flight, you have plenty of time to buy some water before you board, right up those stairs.” “Why thank you chile, I sho’ do ‘ppreciate dat, sho’ am nervous ’bout flying you know.”

my flight began boarding, and standing up to go, i smiled at her again and tried to offer some lame stat comfort. “You know, flying is statistically much safer than driving in a car…” she closed her eyes, smiled and bowed her head, gently rocking back and forth. “I jez put my trust in the Lord, jez put my trust in the dear Lord…” the deep resonance and peace with which she said it radiated a solid warmth seeming to take all the chill out of the over air conditioned terminal. and as she spoke them, her own nervousness seemed to give way in deference to the moment, even before acquiring water to help the prescribed ‘nerve pills’ go down. “That’s where it’s at,” i said, basking in the unexpected reminder, “that has to be at the heart of everything.” “Amen chile,” she said taking my hands in hers, “Amen.”