Living life in the layovers ......

A layover is a period of time when you are not traveling in the middle of a journey.  Or at least that's what the dictionary calls it.  If you have traveled at all then you are probably quite familiar with layovers.  They come in all shapes and sizes.  Some are welcomed.  Some are seen as a frustration and interruption in ones travel.  Most are seen as something that must be endured in order to get to where you really want to be.  

I think that just as we experience layovers in travel, we can also experience layovers in life.  There are times and seasons that we seem to be interrupted in the middle of a journey we are on.  Maybe for a season or time we find ourselves somewhere we didn't plan.  Maybe it's a city we don't want to live in.  Or a job that we don't enjoy.  Or just a phase that isn't our favorite.  These seasons and phases came seem like life layovers.  Times that we simply have to endure in order to get to the next place that we really want to be.  That's essentially what a layover is, right?  It's the period of time that you just have to endure in order to get to the next place?  But is enduring really our only option?

My very first long international trip I was blessed to travel with people who don't just endure the layovers.  In the midst of the twenty-something hours of flight time, we had an almost twelve hour layover in London.  We could have chosen to simply endure our time and just hang out in the airport. Maybe catch some sleep.  Wash our faces and brush our teeth in the bathroom.  Grab some lunch.  Meander around the airport.  Sit.  Read.  Sit.  Endure.

But like I said, I was blessed to travel with people that don't just endure.  They embrace.  So instead of sitting in the airport, we caught a train and saw the city.  My first experience in London.  My first experience embracing a layover.  And I was hooked on both.  (London is one of my absolute favorite cities that I have gotten a chance to visit)

London 2005 en route to Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

 Quite a few years later I had the opportunity to travel with a first time team.  Once again I found myself with a team and a long layover in London.  Hmm.  What to do?  Endure all day in an airport?  Be miserable and frustrated that I have to sit here and pause in the middle of my journey?  Hate the fact that a thirty-five hour trip will now be a forty-seven hour trip?  Nope.  I decided our team would live life and embrace this layover!

London 2010 en route to Pretoria, South Africa

Now it's one thing to embrace and live in the layovers when you have friends and all the right conditions for it.  However when you journey alone and are hit with twenty-four hours for a layover.  In a country with a  language that is not your native tongue.  Nor even remotely sounds familiar.  A layover can begin to sound a bit more like something to endure.  But if I had learned anything in my travels yet, it's that layovers aren't just to be endured.  They are meant to be lived.  To be embraced.  Even if it isn't what you consider ideal circumstances.

Amsterdam 2013 en route home from Cape Town, South Africa

The more I traveled between continents, the more I was faced with layovers.  Eventually I began to consider and learn what I call "the art of the strategic layover."  A few years ago I was headed back to South Africa for a visit and decided I wanted a certain layover.  If I was going to have to have a layover, I decided it would be one that I wanted and that I could take advantage of.  So I paid a bit more for my ticket and picked a longer layover (What?  I paid more money for a longer layover??  Absolutely!).  Twelve hours in Paris, France!  Finally all the French I had studied in school and all the buildings I had learned about I would be able to experience in person via the strategic layover!

Paris 2014 en route to Cape Town, South Africa

As I mentioned before, I think in life we can experience layovers as well.  Michael Buble sings a song called "Home."  There's a line that says "it's like I just stepped outside, when everything was going right."  Often when we make a big move or take a new job, life can feel like this.  And feeling like this can make us feel like we are just enduring a life-layover.  In the middle of huge life transition and feeling a bit like this, God has been reminding me to live life in the layovers...... travel-layovers and life-layovers.  It's not about enduring but about embracing.  I can sit and wish away the season and time or I can grab hold and fully live it.  I can view the season as a frustration and something I just have to survive.  Or I can live it to the fullest and really thrive.  Something I was reminded of with nearly sixteen hours in Dubai!

Dubai 2015 en route to Cape Town, South Africa

Just last week I had another opportunity to endure or embrace.  I decided that life, even in the layovers, is meant to be lived fully.  It's meant to be embraced.  We are meant to thrive not just survive.  So looking at tickets to Germany for a conference, I decided once again to exercise the art of the strategic layover.  I decided once again to pick a more expensive ticket and a longer layover.  This time it was so that I could embrace Istanbul, Turkey!

Istanbul 2015 en route to Cologne, Germany

Here's what I've learned.  Life is life.  Layover or not, it's all still life.  In the words of Kid President (if you don't know who that is, do yourself a favor and click here: https://youtu.be/l-gQLqv9f4o) "This is life people!  You got air coming through your nose.  You got a heartbeat.  That means it's time to do something!"  Travel-layover.  Life-layover.  Embrace it.  Live life to the fullest...... even in the layovers!