Machines and Miracles

by Kimberly Warzelhan

     Let me begin by saying, I dance to the beat of a different drummer. I am a Witch and Reiki Practitioner so I invite you to make of this what you will, just as I have.

     My story begins here.

     I was flying home from Virginia, and what happened that day was amazing. It was the second leg of the flight, which was only about an hour and ten minutes, and we had just been handed drinks. About two minutes later, the stewardess says in a shaky voice over the plane's cabin microphone, "Hand your service items toward the aisle for collection and please buckle your seatbelts."

     Well, instantly the whole cabin was dead quiet. You could literally hear a pin drop.

     So, I put my left hand on the wall. I could "see" somewhere in a mechanical area, an electrical pulse firing, missing it's target. It was like a thing smaller than I can describe or understand, but I "knew" it was wrong.

     I leaned my head to the wall and attempted to send Reiki to this misfiring thing that I could feel, but never understand.

     Now I go back through time, through evolution, through my skin, muscle, bone and blood. I revisit a time before words, before Common Era, to a time much older; where thoughts and dreams and spirits were real entities to be honored, cherished, respected and sometimes feared. To a time when what mattered was not what you made or how you looked, but what you felt and let others feel. Communication in the form of pure emotion and thought, not words and pictures.

     I let the threads of my Reiki energy enwrap this troubled piece of something it could never understand ... aside from understanding that something was wrong ... very wrong ... and that much was at stake should this "wrongness" continue to be.

     Now, something to understand about Reiki. It is much like an aspirin. It goes where it's needed. It doesn't know why or how, it just goes ... much like aspirin will stop your feet from aching or cool a fever. It depends on the need.

     So I "saw" this Reiki energy encircle the misfiring part, and then I heard the plane begin to make a low, keening noise that became louder until it was a grinding wail. The pilot said over the speakers, "Ladies and Gentlemen, please keep your seatbelts buckled and secure all loose items. The plane will be dropping from 33,000 feet to 12,000 feet very sharply."

     So we held on. All the while I was visualizing the Reiki as it did it's work. The plane began to drop.

     I felt my stomach lurch into my throat as the plane dropped its 21,000 feet in less than a minute. The pressure changed dramatically, the oxygen masks fell out, and babies who had been sleeping woke up crying from the pressure. The wailing of the engine (at least I think it was an engine) became quieter, then stopped, and again, aside from the babies crying the cabin was completely silent.

     The next thing that happened was probably the one thing everyone on that plane wanted to hear more than anything else ... more than their stocks had just shot through the roof, more than they had just attained the job of their dreams, more than the news that their daughter was going to law school or their son was going to be a doctor.

     The pilot came on the speaker and said, "OK Ladies and Gentlemen, please put your seats and tray tables in the full upright and locked position, and prepare for landing. We will be landing in Manchester in about seven minutes."

     The plane continued on its course, and as expected, we landed. Upon landing, the plane swerved about twenty degrees to the right, and that is quite a bit. Then the pilot straightened us out and everyone was clapping as we rolled slowly to the gate.

     Aside from the brief clapping and the occasional sigh of relief, the cabin remained silent.

     About five minutes later we were parked at the gate. The fasten seatbelts sign went off with an audible "ding!" and everyone sat still for just a moment, like a millisecond. Then the strangest thing happened.

     The businessmen in their suits did not turn on their cell phones to make the next deal. Instead they smiled at the housewives next to them, offering to help with their bags, car seats and yes, babies. The Christians smiled at the Witch and offered her a piece of gum. The rich, the poor, the beautiful and the homely all shared one moment in time ... one moment of communion when all were equally doomed or saved, and somewhere within each of them I felt they knew that.

     This was one of those all too few moments in life where everyone reaches that crucial realization that we are all no different or better than the others; that the next business deal doesn't matter THAT much; that what we wish our children to become isn't worth THAT much; that she is homely and he is beautiful just doesn't matter THAT much; that we all survive and appreciate one another is what matters; that we can all die at any given moment and better have our respective "ducks in a row" in case we do.

     Businessmen holding babies, children behaving, people of every faith, creed, race all helping one another for one brief moment. I saw it and it made my heart happier that I can remember it being in a long time. I realized that when the chips are down, humanity still exists, and that was such a powerful message to me. I could never seek to explain it.

     By the time we came to the baggage claim area, the women had their babies and diaper bags and luggage, and the business men were back on their phones, and the homely were again homely and the beautiful were again beautiful, and life, as we know it, went on.

     I, however, will always have that memory, now crystallized into a hope and a vision for the future, that one day we will all see one another as equals, as people, as a universal whole. I will never forget that day, the lesson it taught me, and the hope it brought into my heart. Though humanity is buried by money, careers and what others may or may not think of us, it still does indeed exist.

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