Homecomings
by Helen Ramsey

Working in Detroit...Rain, Rain, and more Rain...

I dashed to the rental car drop off, to the shuttle, and to the airport only to find out from an airline ticket representative that my return flight was one hour late.

As I cleared security, the progress of my flight went from one hour, then two hours, then three hours, then four hours late departing. I learned about these delays from the announcements given by a weary airline gate agent.

It became clear that I was going to miss my connecting flight home.

After minute-by-minute travel rearrangements, and knowing that I had to deliver a web-based training the next morning back home, Jim decided to drive the three hours to the hub airport, fetch me, and drive me back.

Jim and I arrived home at 4:30 am. Funny what dreams you have when your Starbucks frequent drinker card gets punched all the way through in 24 hours. I napped a couple of hours, made coffee, logged on to the internet conference site for my training, and waited and waited and waited.

It is lonely at a web-based live meeting training when no one logs in. Do you know why they didn't log in? Because I had actually scheduled the training for the next day, not this day that we had raced home to await. I had a brain freeze and remembered the last weekday I worked with this group and that just stuck.

I worried about telling Jim that he had held off sleep, driven through a storm to raise Noah's ark, and road construction to get me home 24 hours early for a training. But the phone eventually rang as he called from work and it was time to own up.

What do you think he said?

What would you have said?

Would you have scolded? Yelled? Teased? Berated? Would you call all of your friends and let them know? I might say nothing but put the incident in a mental "debit" column, ready to trot out the offense at the next opportune time.

Well, Jim's response to finding out that he had driven almost 400 miles round trip in the rain, construction, and fatigue-time of the night in order to get me home eight hours early was a slight chuckle and this comment, "The important thing is you are home."

...the important thing is your are home...

Today, remind someone how vital it is that they are at home with you. If they live away, tell them how important it is that they have a home in your heart.

Reprinted with permission from the author.

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