A Sign of the Times

On a flight to Korea last December, I sat in First Class on the short haul flight from San Diego up to San Francisco International, then boarded the long 11 hour flight to Seoul...so in the early morning short flight, a nice surprise happened.  The Captain sent me a nice personal note of gratitude for my loyalty to United, written on the back of his business card.  I thought it was a real nice gesture, had seen it once before, in fact.

I happened to have a copy of my Four Flashes book just published with me, and gave it to this Captain after the landing with my own comments penned inside the front cover.  I saw him and wished him well.  It felt good...another of my books out there....give forward....

Last weekend I received a surprise email from the United Captain.  He was working on some mundane paperwork, and there my book was for some short inspirational minutes....I guess it made it easier to get through the tough part he was dealing with.....he said it felt that he had an angel on his shoulder,  Reading the book lifted some of the stress.  I thought what a nice note eight months later. 

Today I was already boarded and in my seat on United 395, Chicago to San Diego, and the Captain emerged from the cockpit.  He looked at me with a sign of recognition and showed thumbs up.  For a split second, I thought it was this Captain.  Later I would ask just to see if that miracle would happen.

Two minutes later he came back to me and said, "Michael, you are the author of the Four Great Flashes book...I stood up, we shook hands and said "Another major serendipity!"  We both stood in awe.  He was very kind.  He said a heartfelt "welcome on board!"...

He flew it well, nice landing, eight minutes early...

As I said goodbye, I gave him my new book....  It felt good.  I wished I had grabbed a picture to capture that moment.

White flash gives us gifts of each other, mostly always good, mostly reminding us we have some rivers of lives that bring us amazing moments, against all odds, far beyond chance...., in this case  even a second or third time.

The landing was smooth this evening....it was a white flash landing all the way....

This is a true story....
I think I needed that or something to lift my spirits....

I hope to see him on a future flight...when my next book is ready to give over....

How can we ever imagine the chances of that happening.....
Like it has so far....