Passover is here and Easter is but a few days away. Many of us are traveling to be with friends and relatives over this special time of year. Interesting events can transpire when we are

letting ourselves Go with the flow of life and when we are open to chance meetings and experiences!

I just arrived home from a five-day stay with dear friends in Ohio. My friends and I went to see my niece’s flute recital for her master’s degree at Bowling Green State University.

Today with long lines at airports and stressful security checks that are for our safety, but we sometimes wonder if there could be a better way! One can often be exasperated with the process of getting from point A to point B. For whatever reason, I have always loved the experience and still remember the excitement I felt as a child to be embarking on a New Adventure!

On one leg of my trip I discovered I was sitting between two ministers. The minister on my right was headed to a weeklong conference in New York and was going to be speaking to hundreds of people; the one to my left was a young youth minister off to visit friends from University.

Wow! I thought to myself. I feel so protected! If there is any mechanical trouble on the plane there is lots of faith and praying power here! I felt as if I were being hugged; so comforting! These two men, regardless of the fact they were men of the cloth, each possessed a feeling of love and calm faith! I sat there with a little glow of Thank you God for this experience today!

Yesterday after six inches of snow the plane had to be de-iced in Columbus and I was unsure that I could travel home. A Mennonite lady sat next to me on the plane. During conversation she made it clear to me that she was not Amish, but Mennonite.  I told her how much I love Plain and Simple: A Woman’s Journey to the Amish by Sue Bender.

Sue Bender lived with the Amish to learn more about their quilt making. At the same time she learned some great spiritual truths of life! This book was very helpful to me years ago while raising my children. I have always loved to cook but felt doing dishes to be drudgery!

The book speaks of how the Amish Eat when they eat, drink when they drink and sleep when they sleep; everything they do is for the love they have for God. “Peggy” whom I sat next to yesterday gave off this countenance. It was so calming! We discussed quilting and as it turned out she is in charge of quilting at their church for this year! She shared with me beautiful quilt patterns, asked me questions of which I liked and told me which ones she was drawn to and why. We also spoke in depth of growing vegetables and flowers and the wonderful camaraderie of women working together, much like my garden club groups and her Mennonite quilting and sewing groups.

We discussed some amazing charities that her church is involved in.  One is called Project Linus. They make blankets for foster children.

I had another poignant experience on my way to Ohio. I was changing planes in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was in the ladies’ room. A woman was in the midst of changing a little baby. As it turned out, the baby was only six days old. He was being taken by his social worker to his grandparents to live because his mother was in the penitentiary, unfit to raise him due to her drug addictions. The story of this child’s already traumatic life touched me deeply.

Such an eventful trip on so many levels! Here’s to going with the flow of life and being open to chance meetings and experiences.

I’m wishing you all Happy Easter and/or Passover!

Bye for now,

Francesca

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