My Journey

Overcome your fear, life is an adventure.

A delayed flight! Stuck in a foreign country. An unknown language! Not one familiar face. That’s nasty. For a girl who was raised in a protected environment, it was like living a horror movie. Her worst nightmares come true.

Yes, it was mine. One cool summer night at the Berlin airport, that shut down, soon after I landed its gate. Raik, my friend who was to pick me up didn’t turn up as expected. He lived in Riesa, hours away by road. All information counters closed, no way to exchange my traveler’s checks, the petty cash not enough to make a phone call to the only number I had, to reach Raik. Without a soul that spoke English, I was stuck with myself in the waiting area until morning that seemed eons away. My mind was struck with fear. Worried and confused. Through it all, I believed that my faith would pull me through.


That’s how he found me. A Good Samaritan. A stranger whom I will never meet again yet cannot forget. He was a traveler using the lounge for an early flight. That’s all I will ever know about him. Language didn’t matter; he spoke German, I English. He gave me coins in exchange for my Deutsch Marks. More than what I had. Expecting nothing in return. A kind gesture. I left several hysterical messages to Raik for abandoning me at the airport. But having the stranger to talk to, helped. He was a godsend. I was right to trust my faith.

Next morning I got hold of Raik in Riesa, who had come to the airport the previous night but was misinformed about my flight. He gave me directions to Riesa via train. I was still afraid, to make the journey alone, in a foreign land but preferred it to continuing my wait at the airport. And boy was it worth it? The train ride is one of the best memories in my life. I was enamored by the sense of adventure I felt when I overcame my fear.

The short ten hours was a journey of sorts, filled with lessons and adventure. I believe mind is always the culprit. My fear, my worry and finally my happiness were all in my mind. Where I am didn’t matter once I conquered my fear. My outlook colored my vision. Who I am didn’t matter once I saw myself in others, gave credit to them as I would give myself. I stopped thinking the world revolved around “me” and life became an adventure. Mind over matter. Easy to preach, tough in reality. But I believe practice and constant faith makes it possible. Faith, a simple word but powerful enough to alter lives. It can be called God but I believe it can take many forms. It is the happiness I feel when I watch a beautiful sunrise, the music in my heart at the site of a rainbow, a wonderful friendship or even a Good Samaritan!


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A piece send out for "This I believe" in National Public Radio
and now for the prompt : The Journey in Writer's Island.

as well as the prompt from Sunday Scribblings on Fellow

Travellers.
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