Come Fly With Me...

I found myself on the road this week – meeting at our headquarters, then an airport conference centre, and lastly in the ubiquitous hotel room for a teleconference.  As I packed my familiar ½’ by 1’ day bag with 3 shirts, 2 slacks, and even collapsible featherweight gym shoes, I had to think back to a different time in my life, what Heidi and I call ‘the consulting days.’

In my final year as a management consultant, I spent 300 days on the road.  Because the IRS required me to track (and document) every day in every country, April 15^th became an annual walk down travel memory lane.   The travel tracker would tally up all my movements then spit out a table with curious factoids such as “you spent more days in Australia than home” or “you worked in 25 of the 28 EU countries.”

Late in the consultant days, Heidi introduced me to the George Clooney movie “Up in the Air.”  In some ways, I was that character.  I could leave the home, pass through airport security, and board my flight in less than 25 minutes.  I knew every staircase, elevator, snack bar, and hotel staff in all major cities of the world.  The human race has extreme adaptability and for 5 years I learned how to crisscross continents never missing a beat.    

So it was with some chagrin I found myself preparing for a trip this week, taking longer than my benchmark 7 minutes to pack a suitcase and shaking off the traveler’s rust of not having flown since March.  Looking back, I can’t believe that I traveled 5 days a week for half a decade.  But the elite status airline and hotel cards testify to my prior nomadic times.

These days, I find myself adapting to a new routine of being home and not a stranger to my own house.  The nearby library and golf course have become my familiar haunts while ‘non-room service’ breakfast at our kitchen table is routine.  What I’m saying is life is all about being in the moment, and this moment feels especially sweet.

Ken