I got a tattoo done…..

I so love a title that shocks and those that know me will be shocked at this! Actually its a quote from a book I’ve been reading and it inspired this blog.
I was given the book ‘Love me Anyway’ by Tiffany Hawk to read for our next book club and thought it would be an engaging chick-lit novel.
It was, but also very thought provoking as it covers the life of a young woman from a small mid-town America. In an abused marriage situation and then into the life of the air stewardess. Facing love, loneliness and enduring friendships.
Sharing gossip on the flights, handling passengers and the fun of visiting great cities with no time to fear the unknown but the chance to explore freely. How would you view that opportunity to be landed in a great city like Rome or Hong Kong with only 12 hours to see it and never knowing if you will have another chance? Is it a ‘yeah let me at it’ or ‘Oh I don’t know, maybe I should just find a good hotel..’

The book also hits on the very painful topic of
9 September 2001 and what it was like to be worried about your colleagues and having to face your next flight!
What was interesting was a statement that the flights bought down actually contained the least passengers in the air that day after a busy summer schedule of flights. Was it an inside job or was it just luck, something we will never know but it opens up the thought of luck being on your side.
After such an event the world of flying was changed forever and job losses were inevitable too and had to be dealt with.

The quote that got me though was

‘I got a tattoo done last week……my lower back…..It’s forever. What if I hate it someday?’
‘Oh honey, it’s not permanent. I got one in the same place and it fell into the great divide years ago’.

Today we are probably looking at our lives and thinking, this is forever. Our job, our home, our loved ones. When perhaps it is not. Things can disappear into that great divide of being there one minute and not being there the next, just as in those planes on that fateful day.
It was inevitable that there would be airline job losses after 2001, our star Emily, went back home picked up the life that she could from the limited opportunities around her but she didn’t look back to the bad marriage, she moved on from it.
Most of us face that fork in the road choice more than once in our lives. We choose which one we feel is the best option at that time, with the facts that we have and with the courage that we have.
You will have to read the book to find out which path Emily next took.

Maybe we need to believe in luck or perhaps when given the chance we have to make our own luck and if it works out badly then throw it off as into the great divide. A lesson learned and moved on from.
Look around at the opportunities you have around us, nothing is permanent if you approach life with an open mind and a goal in your heart.