Saturday, September 10, 2005

FLYING BY THE SEAT OF MY PANTS

I made flight  reservations for my husband the other day.  He has to go to a meeting on the East Coast next week for work. I chose the airline, the flight, the times and the seat for his flight.

Within a few moments, I received a confirmation and the itinerary for his flight.

 The itinerary contained the day, the date, the flight number, the status, the booking, the city of departure.

Under city, there was this information...LV at 8:40 am. AR at 11:40 am.

The return flights were the same.

All of the exact numbers for the flight times to his distination and the exact time that he would arrive back at the airport so that I could be there to take him home.

If it were not for this exact plan by the airline, there would be chaos. I would not know when to be at the airport. I would not know which flight or when it left or arrived.

 I read the information and thought that it would be nice to navigate through Alzheimer's disease with a clear understanding of what was expected and what to do and where to be at the appropriate time.

My uncle George was a pilot for years and he often talked about his days of flying in a war. He said that he flew by the seat of his pants. Not knowing where to land his chopper to pick up the wounded men and if it would be a safe place to land and take off again. He talked about the fear of flying into the unknown.

That is the way that I feel about the navigation through Alzheimer's disease with Peggy.

Most of the time...

I don't know where to land or if what I say is appropriate or when I should take off again.

I am flying by the seat of my pants and continue to look for a safe place to land because...

I am flying into the unknown.

I Love You Today, Peggy and I miss you so much!

Mary Louise

 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know that sounds like a good journal title! Ha! Most of us are flying by the seat of our pants. We may think we are in control & know what we are doing but I really think we do just take it moment by moment.

Anonymous said...

flying by the seat of my pants...

no direction.....  the hardest things are like that.
when you need direction MOST it is no where to be found.
when you know what you are doing... the directions are right there, in your face.....

thank goodness life has it's UPS as well as it's DOWNS.
thank goodness there is  beauty peeking through the tiniest holes of tragedy.

those tiny blessings may just be what helps us through.  Those tiny blessings that would have never occured if the tragedy didn't.

I guess we aren't supposed to LIKE life as much as we thought.  IF life had no pain, who'd need heaven?
=)
Love,
Wendy