Day Three Hundred and Seventy-One

The Flight of the Setting Sun

A-life-in-flight isn’t just some blog URL that I happened to decide upon randomly. My life, in its fullness, has always operated by this theme of flight. As a gymnast, as a vaulter, as a traveler, as a coping mechanism, and now, as a wife chasing an impossible dream that somehow, some way, has actually become so unbelievably possible. But as the season comes to a close, and life back in Washington has sped up, my flight is taking me back to the place I used to call home. For a month, I’ll spend my time helping my family rediscover the reality of life all together, reunited in one city, working as one unit, to provide the best care possible for my father and grandmother. I hope and pray in this move across the state, that not only does my father find healing in his brain, but that my family also begins finding some sort of healing in their hearts.  My family has been separated for 10 years now. Since 2002, a four-hour car drive and 280 miles has put a rift in the dynamic of our family that we’ve never fully sought healing from. I believe, completely, that relocating my dad to Spokane will begin to mend old wounds, surface old demons, and hopefully, bring a peace to our family that has been missing for a large portion of our lives. At times, I’m sure things will be hard, but I’m beyond optimistic for the future of the Mays/Conley/Weitman Clan. I believe in every single one of them. And though, technically, my dad is “sick,” I don’t know if there’s a better medication out there for him than the arms and hearts of his children.

Metaphorically, the sun is setting on an old way of life for my family. And it’s absolutely beautiful. It makes me smile so big and brings fat, watery tears to my eyes. I’m a sunset-kinda-girl. Adam has come to accept this as a fundamental truth to my life. And tonight, when I looked to the horizon at O’Hare International Airport, with the planes flying and the sky glowing, caught literally between two different worlds, alone and without my family or my husband, a peace settled over me. My life is changing. My flight is changing. Two chapters are closing: our first season, and my family’s separation.  It’s exciting. It’s beautiful. And it’s everything I have to smile about.