I remember a time when I was growing up and I would hear about someone who traveled for business and I would think to myself, “they are so lucky to have such a glamorous job that they get to travel.” Oh, how little I understood back then. I could not have been more wrong about the “glamour“of traveling….
Over the years I have driven to the airport and back more times than I can count. It’s sad when the people that work at the vending counters of the airport recognize you faster than your own coworkers do because they have seen you so many times. I have missed so many flights, had so many suitcases get lost in route, been stuck overnight in cities with no hotel rooms available and no luggage due to delayed planes, and I have run through airports in my high heels praying I would make it to my next connection so I could avoid being stuck. I have heard every delayed plane excuse known to man and dealt with more unhappy airport counter workers than I can describe. At one point I had to sleep in so many hotels that I actually bought the Westin hotel bed for my house so I would feel like I was sleeping in my bed when I was at the hotel. But missing your kids and your husband is the very worst part of travel. No…traveling for business is not a joy…at least for me.
Some people aspire to someday land a job where they get to be that business traveler in the airport whisking off to important places thinking they’ll get to see so many cool places when they’re traveling. The sad reality is that mostly what you end up seeing is the airport, the taxi, the hotel room, and the meeting room of the client or the convention center and then you’re right back to the airport. Sure you might fly into a lot of cities but you never really get to experience much of them. …Just know that it’s not exactly the glamorous lifestyle you might be envisioning…
As far as I am concerned – nothing beats being home. Home with your family. Home with your own bed and your own pillow. Home with your pets. Home with your friends. Home with your coworkers. So today my message is to appreciate HOME! Home really is a great thing. The grass isn’t greener somewhere else. The grass is greenest in the place your heart lies, and for me that is with my family.
Look around at the people in your life that you love and that make someplace “home” for you and do something special to let those people know how much you love them and how much you appreciate them. Do something unexpected for them today! It can be anything from a nice handwritten note (not a text) saying all the reasons you love them, to flowers, or candy, or a power tool for your man, or cleaning the dishes or making their bed, or putting a post it note on their mirror telling them they are gorgeous! It doesn’t take money to say I love you to someone. The things that say it best are the little things. So that is my thought tonight.
TELL YOUR FAMILY (OR SOMEONE SPECIAL) YOU LOVE THEM TODAY WITH YOUR ACTIONS (not just your words). AND BE HAPPY YOU ARE HOME!!!!!!
~Amy Rees Anderson
