I was seated next to a woman who kept rocking back and forth, leaning her head down between her legs, and making whispered statements throughout the entire flight. It wasn\u2019t until the end that I heard what she was saying \u2014 and it completely changed how I saw her. At first, I was uneasy. She seemed nervous, her hands clenched tightly together. I assumed she had a fear of flying, something many people struggle with. I tried to offer her a reassuring smile, but she didn\u2019t seem to notice.<\/p>\n
As the flight went on, I caught bits and pieces of her whispers but couldn\u2019t make out the words. Turbulence hit halfway through, and she began rocking faster, her voice trembling. My initial discomfort shifted to concern. I asked gently, \u201cAre you okay? Do you need help?\u201d She lifted her head slightly, her eyes filled with tears. \u201cI\u2019m trying to stay calm,\u201d she whispered. \u201cThis is my first flight\u2026 and I\u2019m going to meet my son for the very first time. He\u2019s three years old. I\u2019ve been saving for years to bring him home.\u201d<\/p>\n
My heart sank. What I thought was fear turned out to be overwhelming emotion. She explained that she had been working overseas, separated from her little boy, and this journey was the final step in reuniting with him. The whispered words I couldn\u2019t understand were her way of practicing what she would say when she finally held him again.<\/p>\n
When the plane landed, she smiled through her tears and thanked me for listening. At the gate, I watched as her son ran into her arms. In that moment, I realized how easily we misinterpret others \u2014 and how sometimes, what looks like fear is really just love and hope spilling over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was seated next to a woman who kept rocking back and forth, leaning her head down between her legs, and making whispered statements throughout the entire flight. It wasn\u2019t until the end that I heard what she was saying \u2014 and it completely changed how I saw her. At first, I was uneasy. She …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8246,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8244\/revisions\/8246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}