Monalisa Dash Dwibedy
This year we thought to tease the winter and travel off the beaten path with an island escape filled to the brim with smiling waters, pristine shores, tranquil vibes and spectacular sunrises. The plan is to carry warm Caribbean memories to Canadian Winter and watch the winter shy away.
We are at the Toronto international airport, waiting our flight to Punta Cana. The best part about an airport lies in its tremendous transformation capabilities. It’s a place of arrivals, departures, new beginnings, and story endings. We start in one city to end in another city hundreds or thousands of miles away. In from familiarity, out into something completely foreign or vice versa.
You can start with icy mojitos and crave for hot cocoa in a few hours. Start with leather jackets, end with sleeveless tops. In from winter, out into summer. You can enter from a dessert and exit into a rain forest. Escape from scarcity to abundance or from a stormy day to a starlit night. In short, your world is about to change as you enter an airport.
I always look at the airports playing a significant role in spiritual growth in the very way it hosts us from the moment we enter into one till we exit from another.
- The moment you are in, it welcomes you into a world where everyone is treated almost equal.
- Have you ever heard international airports are no man’s land in the sense that it does not belong to any country.
- While you collect your boarding pass, they ask you “where you are going”? They never ask you where you are from.
- Creates an ambiance of forgive and forget and let go of the past.
- Check-in your baggage (both physical and karmic) to travel light enough to make sense of what’s coming next and go with the flow.
- Pass through the security gates to get rid of the unwanted stuffs which may harm you and others in your journey. This is a cleansing process if you perceive it right.
- Spend time at the gates, waiting for your flight while dreaming about your new destination and future.
- Once you board your flight and be airborne, You start drifting away from the Mother Earth into the embrace of void.
- Within a few minutes, you are above the kingdom of clouds and gravity has almost forgotten you.
- You are in the lap of space at thirty five thousand feet above the sea level now; this is where time is no longer linear, time is misunderstood, rather it is mystery. You can erase anything from your life and add something new that serves you better. Remember; space is the most powerful and generous of all elements.
- While you are still sailing the sky, you have crossed unknown villages, towns, cities , rivers and oceans. You have also gone beyond your limitations to some extent. Now it’s your chance to become boundless.
- When you land your destination, you enter a city vibrating with a different energy, calling you to home. You are home wherever you are. Embrace the new energy with everything you got.
An airport always gives you another opportunity to become a new you. It’s a place of transit, not just geographically, but spiritually as well.
December being the peak tourist season, Punta Cana airport is crowded with travelers. Beyond the immigration check, there is no air conditioning, but the giant size fans and village style thatched roof kept the place cooler. The air carrying salt breezed past us while we were waiting for our bags to arrive in Belt Six. The smell of the salty air was so intense; it felt like the ocean was calling from a distance.
We are about to board a van to the Majestic Colonial beach resort. Punta Cana is a beach town of Domination Republic, known for its 32km stretch of beaches and clear blue waters. The Bávaro area and Punta Cana combine to form what’s known as La Costa del Coco, or “the Coconut Coast “which houses many all-inclusive beach resorts. Are you an adventure seeking nature lover or in your world, does paradise mean plenty of beach time? For me, the answer is YES.
More later …
(The author is an IT Consultant living in Toronto. Views are personal)
