Hangar Time

Rest. Recuperation. Rejuvenation.

Sabbath rest was meant to be a blessing to God's people (although the sentence of death for its violation always struck me as a tad harsh). Modern medicine shows how important rest is, reinforcing that which God knew from the beginning. If children don't get enough rest, they don't grow well, their brains don't develop properly, they don't do well in school.

In today's stressful, busy world, we don't get enough rest, and our brains are forced to put too much on auto-pilot. As we fly through life, we miss so much happening right under us, even in our own brains. Habits develop without our conscious brain knowing...until something blows up in our face and then we realize how careless we've become. Our flight becomes uneven, bumpy, hazardous.

We crash and need repair.

Gratitude steps in with a hydraulic lift and blow-torch to fix our self-inflicted mess.

Cultivating gratitude means we protect and respect our blessings so they can be shared with others. To love your neighbor as yourself you have to love yourself. Punishment, recrimination, self-loathing...these are not usually helpful.

Hangar time is critical when you have crashed. It allows you to love yourself, nurture and recuperate, regain your strength to take flight again.

But to keep from crashing in the first place, schedule your hangar time regularly.

When you take regular hangar time for routine maintenance and self-care, you'll be much less likely to crash in the first place.

Contemplating, savoring blessings so you can move forward with sharing them...that's what hangar time is all about.

Do you need hangar time? Perhaps you just need five minutes of it, sipping coffee or tea on your back porch while birds sing in the trees. Perhaps most of your life is flying smooth and level, but one area of it is falling apart on auto-pilot. You might only need hangar time for work, or home, or a single relationship that's become more about resentment and irritation than loving kindness.

Take the hangar time you need regularly. You'll fly better for it.