Categories: PersonalTravel

Sea of Clouds

Seat 15F Flight from Panama to Atlanta

We begin our descent, 60 miles from Atlanta.  I sit up in my seat, turn my ipod to Phoenix and pull the shade on the window. The sun is low and the  light graces the clouds beneath us; a gentle touch of soft golden light caressing the billowing cover. It looks like an ocean of delicate down, collecting below me in a current of rising peaks, churning out as far as I can see.

In an instant we are enveloped. It moves me. My breath catches involuntarily, and I am silently awed by the white light that cocoons the plane. Too soon it is over, and what was a beautiful bright scene is now a gray, dark wall overhead, reminding me that everything is a matter of perspective.

There is no sensation like waking up in one country and going to sleep in another. The experience is still magical to me. I imagine no matter how many flights I take or how much distance I cover I will still be humbled by this achievement. This morning I woke in a condo beside the Atlantic ocean. Tonight I return to Chicago, the smell of salt water and distant memory of Spanish chatter lulling me to sleep.

Maggie Rife Ponce

Maggie Rife Ponce is the owner of Rife Ponce Photography. She specializes in day-in-the-life family photography, chicago wedding photography, and portrait photography.

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Maggie Rife Ponce

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