Thoughts from Above

This morning, I was lucky enough to be able to fly to Israel for fall break. I originally flew from Dallas to New York, then from New York to Tel Aviv. I absolutely adore an evening flight because sunsets are my favorite time of day and it's fun to try to pick out specific cities below based on all their lights (if you couldn’t tell by now, I’m SUCH a window seat girl). 

Looking out the window, it’s interesting to watch the cities pass by. I like to see the juxtaposition of the huge cities with lots of lights versus the more rural areas with maybe only a few streetlights- signs of life, but a life less touched by industrialization. Below is the exact moment when we flew over my very own hometown! It was surreal to see a place I know like the back of my hand from a perspective that took away any familiarity I thought I had. I couldn’t pick out my street or favorite places to drive around. This got me thinking- how are flighted animals always able to return home? How do they keep track of where they are both from above and in the midst of it all? 

In thinking about this, the thought occurred to me that birds may be nomadic. But then I realized that birds have NESTS, and many probably have eggs to tend to. Thus, they must have some kind of intuition that humans don’t understand. After all, many birds and butterflies fly away for the cold months and know EXACTLY where to go and how to return. Personally, I have a horrible sense of direction so this is fascinating to me. The first time I learned about this Great Migration was in elementary school when we were learning about Monarchs. Hundreds of thousands of Monarchs fly to a previously agreed upon warm location to survive the harsh winters. I couldn’t believe it. I sometimes get lost going to the grocery store and these butterflies are flying the same long route every year and always end up at the same place (and they return home!). Are they born with an intuition like this? Who is the granddaddy Monarch that first found this oasis? 

But back to my flight. The second leg of the journey was over the Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately, I had an aisle seat and was not able to watch the sea crashing below. But it was nighttime at this point, so I guess it didn’t make too much of a difference. This did however give me the opportunity to research Isreal and all the things I’m excited to do and see. One of the things I’m most looking forward to is floating in the Dead Sea. I’m sure this will give me one heck of a blog post as well! So please come back next week for some riveting content!