Nothing Needs to Change

The Flight Is Still Scheduled. Maybe a New Year Doesn’t Mean You Need a New Plan.

When we were visiting my family in Houston, our flight back to New York was cancelled, allegedly because workers at LGA didn’t show up.

So we rescheduled for the next.

Most of the day had already been invested in packing and preparing for the trip. It’s

exhausting to make the whole journey to the airport, get to the gate, and then find out you have to go back to baggage claim, collect your bags, and return home.

That evening and the following morning, the weather forecast in New York was calling for heavy flooding and severe storms. The airline was even offering passengers the option to change their flights at no cost to avoid potential cancellations.

We considered it.

After all, we had just gone through the frustration of having a flight cancelled. Did we really want to go through all that effort again, only to have the same thing happen?

The morning of our flight, it seemed like everything was pointing toward changing our plans.

The flights before ours? Cancelled or delayed.

The flights after ours? Cancelled.

Yet somehow, our flight was still scheduled to depart on time.

Even more surprisingly, our flight was scheduled to fly during the very hours when the

weather warning was supposed to be at its worst.

We thought about changing the flight anyway.

But ultimately, we decided we wanted to return to New York.

Sure, it might be uncomfortable to go through everything again only for the flight to be

cancelled.

But that was exactly what it would be:

Uncomfortable.

The flight was still scheduled to depart.

The only problem was that we were worried about what might happen once we got to the

airport.

Nothing had actually changed on the airline’s end.

So we decided to prepare for the flight.

And, to our surprise, everything went incredibly smoothly.

The bag drop.

Security.

Boarding.

I don’t think I’ve ever been on a flight with such a smooth boarding process!

Thank G-d, the flight itself had only one brief bout of turbulence.

And afterward, I realized how often this happens in life.

Things may change.

Things may become uncomfortable.

Our plans may have to change.

But those are possibilities.

They’re what ifs.

They haven’t happened yet.

And yet, we often allow our fear of what might happen to make us change course today.

I started noticing this in my own day-to-day life after returning to New York.

After the trip, I wanted to improve certain things and thought my schedule needed to

change. As the saying goes, if you want things to change, you have to do something

different.

So I adjusted some things, thinking they would help.

But they actually made things worse.

And then I remembered the flight.

Nothing needed to change.

The flight was still scheduled.

Everything was working.

There was no actual cancellation.

There was simply the possibility of one.

Maybe that’s a message I need to take with me as we approach Rosh Hashanah, the

beginning of a new year:

Not everything needs to change just because a new year is coming.

Sometimes we think that because we’re entering a new season, we need a completely new

plan.

But if something is working, why change it?

If nothing external is requiring us to change, perhaps the change that is needed isn’t in our circumstances.

Perhaps it’s within ourselves.

The fears and worries about a possible “flight change” are just that:

fears and worries.

The work is learning how to move forward despite them.

To ride through the discomfort.

To enjoy the uncertainty.

To recognize that something might go wrong without allowing that possibility to dictate

what we do right now.

There is a beautiful teaching on the verse:

“Hashem, your G-d, is testing you…”— Devarim 13:4

The Hebrew word for “testing,” menaseh, is connected in Chassidic teachings with the word nes, a miracle or banner.

A banner is raised high on a mountain, “Nes al ha’harim” (Sefer hamitzvahs Tzemach

Tzedek 73:1)

The test itself can become the very thing that raises us higher.

We don’t pray for tests. We don’t need to go looking for difficulty.

But when challenges inevitably appear, they can become opportunities to reveal a deeper

part of ourselves.

Chassidus explains that the concealments and obstacles we encounter don’t have

independent existence. Ultimately, G-d is the only true existence.

That doesn’t mean the challenge isn’t real or that discomfort doesn’t hurt.

It means that the challenge doesn’t get the final word.

The question is what we do with it.

Can I see G-dliness even within the uncertainty?

Can I remain grounded when I don’t know what will happen?

Can I avoid changing course simply because I’m afraid of what might happen?

Maybe that’s the real test.

The flight is still scheduled.

So prepare for it.

Board the plane.

And let the turbulence be turbulence.

You might just discover that the flight goes exactly where you were hoping it would.