“Are you from Oklahoma?” the gentleman asked as he extended his hand to me, followed by a quick, “We’re from Missouri.”
I was wearing my crimson and cream Oklahoma sweatshirt. We’d just landed in London, England, earlier that morning, having flown all night. The man from Missouri and his family had their bags in the lobby, ready to leave, just as we watched over ours, waiting for our room to be available.
“You’re going to love London,” he said, grinning. “Every day, we asked ourselves, ‘Can today be as fun as yesterday?’ And it was,” he said. “We thoroughly enjoyed every day.”
I wasn’t feeling it. It was 7:30 a.m. But my body said it was 4:30 a.m. We had been on the plane for about 8 hours, not to mention another flight earlier in the day.
But the man from Missouri was so bright and cheery that I couldn’t help but smile back. My smile turned inward, instantly seeping into my tired body and mind like massaging oil. I suddenly felt energized as the Missourians left the lobby. I offered a silent prayer: “Lord, may I be smiling at the end of our week here, just like that guy from Missouri. And may each day be like he described: a wonderful gift we enjoy.”
The man from Missouri couldn’t have known from my smile, but I had arrived in London with a bundle of apprehensions: “What if our luggage doesn’t make it? What if our flights are delayed? What if we are too busy during the week? What if we aren’t busy enough? What if it’s more expensive than we planned? What if it rains every day? What if it’s too hot? What if it’s too cold? What if I packed too much? What if I didn’t pack enough?”
But when I smiled back at the man from Missouri and prayed, all my apprehensions dissipated at once. Then, I made it a point to pray that prayer each morning: “Lord may this day be a wonderful day, full of surprises and adventures in this amazing city that we have this opportunity to enjoy, given as a gift by our son, Dave, and daughter-in-law, Kayla, to Lori and me.”
And it was: every new day was more impressive than the day before, each filled with sights and sounds of places and events and people that brought me joy and made me want to smile and even dance, which I did, once (if that’s what you would call it). We bounced from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Palace, from Westminster Abby to the Tower of London, from Stonehenge to Bath, from pubs to shopping, and even cruised the Thames River.
Before I knew it, our eight days in London were over. Then it was my turn to wait in the lobby for our ride to the airport. “Where are you from?” I asked a man guarding his bags while waiting for his room to be available. He had traveled from Washington, a longer flight than mine had been, and he appeared even more exhausted than I imagined I had looked upon my arrival.
“You are going to love it here,” I told him. “Every day, we asked ourselves, ‘Can today be as fun as yesterday?’ And it was,” I told him. And like the man from Missouri before me, I couldn’t help but smile as I told him. I had just started to tell the new arrival about Stonehenge and Bath when my son said, “Time to go, Dad,” so I wished the man from Washington well.
As I walked through the door, carrying two bags and another across my shoulder, I glanced back to my beloved hotel lobby one last time. And there was the man from Washington with a big grin, which I thought looked like the one I had after I talked to the man from Missouri.