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Welcome

Friends,

First, happy Sunday! To start with a quick bit of housekeeping: if you have read this far, can I trouble you to reply to this email with a friendly “hi”?

While this risks momentarily flooding my inbox, it will be a great help to our back end.

Thank you!

Now, onto today’s email: it was fun to reflect on being a flight attendant yesterday.

Unrelated, but yesterday I read a few customer complaints aimed at a client of mine. And my wife went to Costco, where she said it was so crowded that people were audibly complaining. My children like to whine sometimes, too.

And as I thought about it, I remembered one of the ways United changed how I see the world: being a flight attendant made me a lot more empathetic.

This is not a subtle flex, and I am not a saint. I am just saying that things are unbelievably out of our control, often chaotic, and it is remarkable everything works as well as it does (common grace, to be sure). Often when I complain, I am failing to see these aforementioned realities as, well, reality.

And I’m often not approaching what’s frustrating from a place of gratitude.

I am reading the book Living Life Backwards right now, and it is an extraordinary teaching on Ecclesiastes. One of the points that the author makes on a Biblical basis is that “life is gift, not gain”.

It is better to give than to receive.

And as I flight attendant I realized in a new way that kindness slows everything down; it creates space for goodness to enter in.

Especially when the line at Costco is long or Venezuelan customs is slow (and you are holding a 737 for the last passengers at the risk of everyone else’s onward connections).

I hope you and I see the gift that this breath of life is today. And I hope, in one way or another, I get to serve drinks on airplanes again. I’d love for you to be on that plane with me: I promise it will be a blast.

Thank you for reading, and for flying with me here.

Be well,

Tommy

P.S. Can I trouble you to stop and quickly reply “hi” to this message?

P.P.S Everyone made their onward connections.

Recap

This week’s writing:

Remember, this life you are living has meaning. Thank you for reading. I am grateful you are here and would love to hear from you. If you'd like to write me a note, simply reply to this email. Otherwise I'll see you in the next post.

Be well today. -Tommy

P.S. If I can ever help you plan your next travel adventure (slash help make your points go farther), I’d be delighted. You can schedule time together here.