Noticings - Airport Prayers

Pianos, signs, reminders, and cool lights

Last week, my wife and I got some wonderful time away even if it was just 48 hours out of town.  We went to Las Vegas to see one of U2’s Sphere concerts (more on that in a later post).  We had to get back home however in time for an important family event on Saturday night so we had the joy of flying a redeye from Friday night into Saturday morning.  After sleeping o so uncomfortably on the flight from Las Vegas to Chicago, I needed to move around.  So off I started wandering around B & C at O’Hare and, as is often the case with me, I started noticing things.  It started with this piano.

It was sitting next to a small bar-type kiosk and looked to be one that was there for anyone to stop and play.  Having no musical skill whatsoever, I simply celebrated it being there and hoped for someone with more skill than me to stop by.  But there was more.

• A place for a mother to nurse a child with a vending machine next to it that was filled with baby supplies - diapers, snacks, wipes, etc - and parents/caregivers trying to tend to children at 5:00am wherever they were traveling to.

• There were signs in the bathrooms and around the concourses reminding people to be watching for people potentially being trafficked and controlled by someone against their will.  It led me to remember to be praying for those who have been pulled into situations that I cannot even imagine.

• Signs about how an elephant is killed on average every 15 minutes and reminding us that the way we stop the ivory trade is by people stopping buying ivory and not simply hoping that anti-poaching efforts will have a full effect.

• Recycling efforts around the airport.  This was so welcome after noticing few places to recycle when we were walking around Vegas.

• Unnecessary beauty.  I have always loved the the crazy rainbow neon tunnel connecting concourses B & C.  There’s no “need” for it to be decorated like that other than to simply provide a place to enjoy something beautiful and different from what one normally gets around an airport.

• On concourse B, the replica of a dinosaur’s skeleton that looks down upon everyone inviting them to the Field Museum.  I love the sense of connecting to history and all that has changed in millions of years.

• And of course, people of all kinds.  Few places are better for seeing the incredible, diverse, and beautiful uniqueness of humanity.

The biggest part of this noticing is a reminder that we can always have our hearts soft and prepared for the Spirit to speak.  It can happen in an airport concourse after a 5a landing from a redeye.  It can happen in a crazy neon-lit underground tunnel.  It can happen from a sign on a bathroom wall.  It can happen in places that we think of as holy and places that seem far from it.  I am grateful that this public piano lit up my spirit even as my body was saying, “why did you just take that redeye flight?”