My husband and I just returned from a vacation trip in Northern Idaho (Coeur D’Alene and environs). As is true for most trips, some problems emerged over the ten days. A few examples:
· We looked forward to a seaplane ride to celebrate our anniversary. The sole plane on the lake near us that offered rides was under maintenance the whole time.
· We envisioned a comfortable tour boat for our first experience on one of the lakes. The boat was small, our seats were hard plastic chairs without a great view, and they sold too many tickets so we felt “jammed in.”
· The coffeemaker in our VRBO house died on Day Six of a nine-day stay. This may not seem important to you, but other readers will understand the gravity.
· We arrived at the airport to fly home, and Tim returned the rental car. That’s when we started getting emails from the airline: flight delayed; delayed again; you won’t make your connection, so we rebooked you. The rebooking meant the airline assumed we’d have no problem waiting in the airport for 14 hours, flying out at midnight and getting a connecting flight at 4 a.m. (Eventually they gave us a hotel voucher instead, and we flew home a full day later under more reasonable timing.)
· After we settled into our hotel, I noticed an unread email. The airline had assigned me to the hotel we were in, but they had assigned my husband to another one. (We both stayed where we were!) As a sidelight, the meal vouchers totaling a whopping $24 did not even cover the one airport meal we chose to share!
· The airline for some reason reserved wheelchairs for us every leg of the way. We never asked for wheelchairs, nor did we need them. (We tried to tell them at baggage-check in, to no avail, so we just ignored them).
So, you might ask: “Lauri, did you have a terrible vacation?” The answer is a resounding no. Why? Because of silver linings.
You’ve heard that every cloud has a silver lining. On those two flights home, from my window seat I had plenty of time to study the clouds around and beneath me. When clear and sunny, it was easy to picture those white bright puffy clouds having silver linings. But when we flew through greyer skies with dark ominous-looking clouds, it was hard to imagine such.
Here’s what one atmospheric scientist says about it: “When the sun shines behind some cumulous clouds, you see a bright outline along the edge of the cloud – the silver lining, which occurs when light is diffracted by cloud droplets along the cloud’s outer edge. Silver linings are observed around thicker clouds containing larger droplets.” [Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.]
So, sunny conditions are necessary for the phenomenon – which means that, in reality, not every cloud has a silver lining. Oh well. I still think that living by the famous maxim can improve one’s attitude and emotional well-being.
No, it was not a terrible vacation: The misty mountains and sparkling lakes in God’s creation were lovely. We took two other great boat tours on fantastic, spacious vessels. We enjoyed some delicious food at fun restaurants. The big-blue-sky weather was ideal (and clear of wildfire smoke we had been concerned about). We discovered pleasant serendipity, always a highlight of any trip.
And I learned I could live without coffee for three consecutive mornings. So – science aside – I still believe every cloud has a silver lining.
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