The view from above is amazing as the balloon drifts ever so gently across the open fields below.   A little more heat is provided from the enormous flame as the basket follows the balloon higher into the invisible air currents that carry the passengers across the sky.

Eventually, the “ride” is over and the balloon begins to drift slowly back to Earth.  The pilot radios his field crew the direction and area for which they will land.  As they touch down gently into a grassy field, the crew arrives and dismantles the balloon.  Within minutes, everything is packed away, and the passengers settle in for a ride back to their launch point.

No one knows for sure where the balloon will carry the passengers, and the pilot can only guide the balloon towards the general area of where he would like to go.  The air currents determine the rest, and it’s a matter of deciding when to enter the stream of air, or to find another one moving in a different direction.  Once in a while the current is difficult to find or to predict making for  a trip without a “destination.”

Life is much the same as the hot air balloon.  You may know the general direction of where you would like to go, but you may have already realized that you may have little “control” of the route to get there.   Much like the pilot of a balloon with one control to either provide heat for more lift or not, you have few “controls” in your life.

You may decide on a particular destination in your life, and place a beacon in that location, but the route to get to that destination may be one with little “controls” available for you on piloting yourself there.  The “control” that you may have could be the desire for an education, a new job, or a particular set of skills and talents.  You may work hard to refine those skills and talents to help propel you upward, providing the lift necessary to enter an invisible current.

Once in the current, you can then only guide your life in the general direction that current is carrying you.  You may look for other currents, or provide a little less lift, so that you may lower yourself down towards the ground, or even to land in a “temporary destination.”  The view from the balloon may not be the one the pilot was striving for, but to the passengers, any view from that altitude is amazing.

When you’ve travelled the journey for so long, there is a tendency for the pilot to forget about the first time when he lifted into the sky and looked below.  Sometimes, the journey becomes so familiar the appreciation for the heights you have climbed is forgotten as well.  When you set your beacons over your lifetime and reached those destinations, you may have quickly forgotten the joy and thrill you experienced at the arrival.

Now, you may have quickly entered a new set of beacons onto your “list of destinations” looking to achieve more and more things in your life.  The hot air balloon may make an unplanned stop, but every stop provides an opportunity to explore the unknown.  For it is the unplanned stops that promote exploration and the extension of your life’s experience.  It’s the “unplanned stops” along the journey and the “unplanned drifts” away from the destination that can provide learning and the potential to raise your level of life experience and growth.

InspiraCard

When you arrive at one of your beacons or destinations, take the time to honor and appreciate that accomplishment before you are quickly whisked away in the vehicle to carry you back “home!”

Written Tue Mar 4, 2014 7:31 – 7:46 AM MT