Canceled flights, LAX shooting, Mercury retrograde, and a wedding dress

Last weekend the wedding dress and I tried to take my Mom to LA for visit...something I promised to do when she moved here. We spent weeks making the arrangements and then Mercury went retrograde in Scorpio. As we passed through security in Denver someone started reading the news to us about a shooter at LAX in terminal three, where we were scheduled to land. Within an hour our flight was reported as delayed, and fifteen minutes later we were told that all flights to LAX were canceled. 

We had been watching the bedlam taking place at LAX. People were trying to walk in and out of terminals, planes were on the tarmac waiting to unload (some people waited for 4 hours or more), and the roads were in long-term gridlock. 

Something about this day seemed familiar...and then I remembered. The last time my Mom and I flew together was four years prior on Rosh Hashanah on an emergency trip to Tulsa to see my brother before he died. We were delayed leaving Denver, and then trapped in Tulsa for a night on our return. To top it off, the fire alarm went off twice at the hotel resulting in a sleepless night.

Back in Denver, Ric picked us up in the same place he had dropped us off three hours prior and we headed home. We filled some hours having pedicures, had a lovely Shabbat dinner and went to bed....and  then around midnight the fire alarm started beeping, reminding me every 15 minutes that it was time to change the battery. My Mom and Ric slept through it, but even with my head buried in a pillow it kept me from a deep sleep. Beyond coincidence....beyond Mercury retrograde...beyond belief. Clearly there is some connection between these two trip.

So, if everything is a gift from HaShem...no matter how crazy...what is the message buried in this one? How are these two trips connected?

Perhaps there is a connection between the first day of November and the High Holy days. I checked. November 1st 2014 was Cheshvan 28th in the Jewish calendar, the day tradition tells us after the flood ended and Noah left the ark and offered thanks for surviving a rather rough journey.  Curiouser and curiouser.

Maybe there is a message in the reading for the day. I checked. It is the parsha in which Issac blesses the younger son Jacob rather than the older son Esau, all of which was orchestrated by Rebecca. OK...so add sibling challenges, and confusing family dynamics to giving thanks for wild journey's. 

So what can I do with all this? With a few twists...perfectly permitted when creating a Jewish "drash"....I come up with this.

Maybe we need to realize that everyday is connected to Rosh Hashanah because everyday and any day is a holy day full of miracles and reasons to give thanks. Everyday holds a piece of life's story, the world's story, and my story.  Everyday, without our knowing it,  we are saved from being stuck on the tarmac, saved from a flood or from crossing paths with danger.

Every day is an opportunity to be holy...to be better...to become more of who I dream I can be. Everyday I have a chance to be beautiful, inside and out, to wear a wedding dress and celebrate like a bride. Not just on Rosh Hashanah or on my wedding day.

And maybe other is one more connection.  Perhaps when I am open to see beauty and miracles around me, I am surrounded by beautiful miracles. 

We will try this trip again, and maybe this time we will fly easily to LA with the wedding dress. Either way, whatever happens, I know it will be a blessing.