QBLOG #10-Night Flight

Night Flight

Tick
Tick
Tick
Tick
The Clock counts out it’s name.

I’ve been in Iraq for 60 days. In many ways time is moving quickly for me. There is quite a bit to do. You hear people talk about time. Those who are getting ready to EOT (End Of Tour) are excited. For them, time is moving too slow. What is your time feeling like today? Is it dragging on or flying by?

Helicopters fly by.
Music in the background…
Night is here.
My soul is starting to fly it’s nightly journey….
It pays no attention to the bombs, the mortars or the Blackhawks…
Looking for and finding a note of music to take off from….

Helicopters fly 24/7 here in Baghdad…at Camp Liberty. They are either patrolling, bringing people in or taking people out. But you hear them…often.
When I was younger, I used to have dreams about flying. It felt like I was Superman, but without the costume. I would just lift off the ground! I would take these journey’s over green fields and have these beautiful blue skies to fly into. I would see a cloud in the distance and want to know what it felt like to be in it. ZOOOM! I would think the thought and then I would be flying towards the cloud. WOW! It was quiet. Still. Calm. If you have ever been sky diving, then you may know what it is like. There is this incredible feeling of quiet and connectedness after your chute has opened and you have pulled the “air brakes” . You are floating above the earth. You are weightless. You can see forever! That is what my night flight felt like. My time in the clouds. Where does your sleep take you? What journey does your soul guide you on?

Tick
Tick
Tick
Tick
My dream flight begins!
Noise all around…
Sounds of war are in the background.
Turn to music here! Now!

In my early flights, I would try to wake myself. Not because I was afraid. Not because I wanted the dream to end. It just felt so real and I wanted to make sure that it was real and not a dream. I doubted that I could fly. But I could never wake myself. I would dive to the ground, but would always just touch it, and off I was again to another cloud or hill. My soul persisted. It would convince me that I could indeed fly! So soar I would! Over fields, and mountains and streams, over all the green that this world could bring. I would follow telephone lines, or catch up to a flock of birds and journey with them for awhile. When my heart was filled with joy beyond it’s capacity, I’d look for a cloud to rest on. What distractions in life keep us from “flying” and filling our heart’s with joy?

Tick
Tick
Tick
Tick
The journey begins!
Sounds slowly die…except for the music!
It takes flight.
Nothing else matters.
I don’t know where I am going,
But the music gently sweeps me away.

I always wanted to know these places from this journey I took. I would go to the mountains in my native Santa Fe and hike up to this rock that stuck out from the mountain. I would try to see if I could see where it was I had been. I tried to find the peace in the mountains that I enjoyed on my flights. I’d hike into the mountains and find a place where there was no one. You could hear the wind rustle the pine needles and the leaves from the Aspen tree’s. You could smell that air filled with pine...the crisp clean air. I would remove my clothes and run! Run as fast as I could trying to fly, with my arms reaching out to the sky…wanting to fly. I felt the mountain air touch my skin, wanting that sensation of flying …waiting for “lift off”. I would breathe in as deeply as I could and feel the fresh air renew my spirit.

Everywhere I turn and look
I see shades of Blue…
Of Faces from far away…
It’s YOU!
It is YOU!
It is all of YOU!
Smiling!
Shining from afar!
I see YOU! EVERYONE!
YOU are all the same!
I feel your Love!
…and YOU feel mine too!

Did you ever look up at the clouds and see faces? Maybe a clown, or a dog, or a baby…a man or a woman? I used to look up at the sky. I would see the clouds and look for a form…a face, in them. I would get so excited when I found one! Look! Look! There’s the face of an old man! Look at the Ice Cream cone! Cool!

In my flights, I would “see” these faces in the clouds and would rush to them. They looked, familiar. They felt like love. There was no male or female form. It was just…love. What do you see when you look up at the clouds? What do you see in the people you know? Do you see yourself? Is it love?

Tick
Tick
Tick
Tick
Slowly my flight begins to end.
I turn around…
And my soul begins to seek it’s former ground.

…and so, I turn around. I’d look over my shoulder and I would start back. I wanted to fly higher though. I wanted to see if I could. And I did! I reached to the stars and I was at a point that was divided by light and darkness. Green and Blue below me. Darkness and beautiful stars above me. Wow! Cool! I would see where I needed to be and Zooomed to that place. There was a smile on my face and joy bursting from me!

Tick
Tick
Tick
Tick
I hear the clock.
Tick
Tick
Tick
My vision is blurred….
I have been waiting…to hear…
The sound…
Of….Music!
Of YOU!
Yes! All of YOU!
My soul is full…
And the music quiets….
And the Helicopter sounds…return…

I return to my physical me. To earth. To land. To sea. I’m now ready to experience a new day. I want to see if I can find those faces I saw in the clouds. May I greet you and look in your eyes? Was that you in the clouds that I visited last night?

Tick
Tick
Tick
Tick
I’m back in my room…
In my bed…
Wishing for my music…
Of YOU!
But, another night,
And I know that I WILL
Have a similar flight!
Tick
Tick
Tick
Time for good night.
Tick
Tick
Tick….into the night.

Tick
Tic…
Ti….
T…………


What kind of time are you ticking away from or moving toward? Won’t you take time to journey with me and help me find those faces in the clouds?


I close this with a poem I wrote about my dream flight before this one. It was in May last year, the first time I had this dream in my adult hood.

Night Journey

Sky dark.
Night filled with stars…
Waiting their turn
To rain down…

Releasing themselves…
From the velvety night.
Falling gracefully…
Leaving traces of their journey.

Souls are coming!
To enter a new life.
Filling a body
That is not yet contrite.

Tears of Joy,
Streaming down on earth…
Seeking a vessel
To carry their message of hope.

Souls falling…
No…Flying into sight
Their joy leaving,
Traces of their flight…

Finding places
In hearts of children…
Looking at faces
Of other….not themselves.

Seeing is believing!
But, believing is Seeing!
No matter if
Souls or stars are falling….or flying!

Robert Quintana
12 May 2004


May you fly in peace.

Robert