Our family decided kind of spur of the moment to come to New Zealand for a vacation. We saw an add in the paper for amazingly cheap airline tickets on a budget airline and decided to "go for it".
People in Singapore can not believe that most people in the U.S.A. do not have passports. Living in this part of the world opens a whole new door and perspective on travel as it is cheap, easy, and a very new experience for the Miles family.
So off we went yesterday, boarding our plane. We really did not know what to expect, we knew it was a 9 hour flight and there was no food or drink included in our ticket cost. We knew that some people have had really bad experiences on budget airlines but we also knew that this was a price we could afford so if we want to see New Zealand, now is the time.
The first breath taking experience we had was unfortunately not a good one. We were ordering some lemonade from the drink cart that was going by when the call came over the speakers, "we need any and all medical certified personnel to report to the front immediately.
Wow, you don't hear that very often and even though I have been out of work for a while I do have a lot of critical care experience so up to the front I went.
You know, we just never know the time or the place that our breath is going to be taken from us. My arrival to the front of the economy class seats was one of my fears as a medical professional.
There was a man who was not breathing, he was a very large man, it took 6 men to get him into the galley so that myself, one doctor and one microbiologist could work on trying to revive his life. That's right out of all of the people on the plane only three came up front to help.
I will spare you the details but he was 31 and on that day on that plane, his breath was taken from him and not matter how hard or how long we tried it was not coming back.
Our second breathtaking experience came as we took an evening drive through Christ Church up and down a windy mountain road into Lyttelton, the gateway to the Arctic, a town that was hit hard by the earth quake a few months ago. The mountains, the lake the city from above with the sun setting and the city lights shining was just breath taking, amazing, beautiful, peaceful.
As I was standing there looking I thought of Robert, the man who gave his last breath on our flight and I thought of how God gives and God takes.
God gave us Jesus who also gave his breath in order for us to live. I thought about how God is in control of everything, it is not for us to worry about our days.
Yes, our days are numbered but there are many many gifts given to us each and every day for us to enjoy and that in its self can be breathtaking.
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