Sharing peace and joy

I won't be writing this often I promise but since I was traveling by plane all day I had more time...

When I got to the airport this morning it was virtually empty. I was thrilled thinking that the airline personnel will not have had time to have dealt with difficult people. Well the problem with that theory is who knows what they have dealt with before they got to work? Maybe they had a bad evening? Maybe they didn't get a good night's sleep? Maybe someone in their family is dealing with a health problem or some other issue--money, drugs, separation? Maybe they had a rude server at the fast food place they stopped at for breakfast? It could be any number of things we have all been there. 

Well I walked right up to the ticket counter and what started as a very pleasant experience turned into an unpleasant one. I'm not sure what happened but I indicated I wanted to keep my backpack with me and she said it was big. And then when I realized there was a line forming behind me I said I had another smaller backpack with me and could step aside and repack it some. She said "I don't care what you do, you are going to get me in trouble and I'm  going to mark it that I tried to get you to check your bag."  

I didn't realize that she had already printed my boarding passes. She looked at my stuff on the counter and looked at me. So I got my stuff and left. I went and sat down and repacked my bag and went through security (which never fails that I ALWAYS  "randomly" get selected for extra checks) and then on to the gate. 

And sure enough I'm on a really small airplane and had to gate check my backpack. I don't really enjoy flying. Have landed in Chicago where I had the most peaceful flight I have ever had. So, in some ways I really wish I could go back and talk to that woman and share with her some peace and joy. Maybe someone else is able to do that for her today. I pray that happens.