The Airplane Text

"I love you - be careful"

Simple phrase. Simply put. I hear it often. It comes at a time when it is very appropriate to hear. It has become kind of a sense of security for me.

I fly a lot. Probably too much. Every week I board between 2 and 6 airplanes bound for somewhere. My wife and I make it a practice to have me call before I take off and immediately after I land. "I love you - be careful" is the last thing I hear before every departure.

At first I didn't recognize the pattern. I didn't really realize that my wife made sure that was the last thing she said to me. I also didn't realize that it had been happening that way for a long time. Once I noticed, I started to count on it. "I love you - be careful". "I will honey, I love you too." Hearing it is important to me. I think saying it is important to her. She doesn't like to fly for a variety of reasons, but the "I love you - be careful" reminds me that she really doesn't like me to fly either. That she worries about me. That she cares about me.

Loving someone is a much easier process than truly caring about them. "I love you - be careful" is the phrase that tells me that this is much more than love. That I am so lucky to be the object of her love and caring.

Ironically, I wrote this on my morning flight today. I then boarded my evening flight late and when I called her she was busy with the kids. For the first time, she missed saying it. I hung up the phone with kind of an empty feeling. Kind of scared. I called back and she acknowlegded that it didn't happen. It was really the first time we had ever even recognized to each other that it was a recurring sequence of events. The she said it.

"I love you - be careful". Needless to say I landed took off an landed safely. I was careful.