A Vision for a Lonely Traveler

Last night I heard an ABC News report about travelers stranded at a now deserted NY City airport, sleeping on dirty floors or plastic chairs and presumably stuck for days until the great blizzard of 2015 passes; thousands of flights nationwide have been cancelled because of the massive storm, said to affect sixty-million Americans.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/passengers-stranded-airport-due-northeast-storm/story?id=28512064

One such person was interviewed, saying all the hotels were booked and really expensive, and, besides, he couldn’t even get to the hotel because all the roads were closed, and there was no public transportation either as that had shut down too. He was quite literally stranded in the airport without all but the most basic human comforts.

In a moment after hearing the story, I had a vision of being the stranded traveler and also a person who arrives in the airport—a Good Samaritan if you will, someone who shows up and walks right up to the stranded one, smiling. 

“Hello, friend, come home with me until the storm passes and you can get back to your travels. I’ve a warm, safe home, a loving family, and we’ve prepared some wonderful food for you." 

"This is a homecoming of sorts, and after dinner, we have a very comfortable bed in our guest room so you can get a good night's sleep and be rested for the resumption of your journey." 

"Here, let me take your bags." 

As we walk through the electric doors of the airport ground transportation zone, outside into the storm, right outside the door parked by the side of the road sits an old Jeep Cherokee, idling and warm inside. 

"I have a four-wheel drive, so we can cruise right through the snow. That’s my dog in the back seat, he might lick you to death, but he won’t hurt you.” 

I always picture a golden retriever or some other super-friendly, heart-centered therapy-type dog that can barely contain his love and fascination with this new friend.

In my vision, the lonely traveler is never alone nor forgotten. 

The person helping the traveler is as happy and glad to do it as the traveler is to receive this hospitality. The entire family of the welcoming person is waiting for the traveler; though a stranger and someone they’ve never met, they dote over the person and treat that person like a long-lost and cherished relative.

I have relived this vision over and over and consider it centrally related to my heart’s desire or deepest longing in that we are all travelers here on this earth while we inhabit our human forms, and we all have moments of loss, of being stranded, of being alone, without options, lost in the void or vortex of a great storm, and my deepest wish is that there would always be some fellow being (human, animal, spirit or otherwise) to assist us, close by all the time; if we only just turn around and open our eyes instead of trying to sleep on the rather uncomfortable plastic chair in the cold and cavernous airport hallway, feeling hungry, tired, anxious and worried about how we’ll ever get home, this true friend is waiting right there for us with outstretched arms and love enough to lend a helping hand.