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Since our trip back, a question we’re often asked is,

“So how was your trip home?”

For those of you who have been abroad for any length of time, these observations will make sense to you:

• My watch is still on CEST (Spain time).
• We still have regular calls and communication with our new Spanish friends.
• We often feel that we’ve left our home in Alhaurin de la Torre to come to an unfamiliar country. (I’m sure many of you stateside feel the same about the U.S. now!)
• As part of my work with a client, I was on a call this morning with folks from at least  nine different nations.

What is easing the return “home” –a word I couldn’t even utter for the first few days–are phone calls and Zoom calls with friends here, social-distance stop-bys from neighbors, and grocery and goody deliveries. Together with the sustaining love of new friends in Spain, we are gradually returning home.

We began our pilgrimage with the theme of “Angels and Adventures.” We continued to see how it came into play throughout our time. Some of those encounters were illuminated by “Enneagram Insights.” We share these as well for those of you wanting to see how Enneagram awareness can catalyze a person’s journey of human transformation. Here are a few select highlights from our journey home:

Leaving Santiago (with a wonderful family):

Adventure: Santiago the dog is very attached to both of us. However, because of Spain’s emergency alert, only one person is allowed to be in a vehicle at a time. So I (Jon) had to take Santiago by myself to his host family.

Angels: I had grown so attached to him that I started to cry when I closed the gate behind me and got into the car to leave him. Upon arriving back at the house, I openly wept and had my Angel Susie beside me for comfort. We both miss that beautiful doggie!

Enneagram Insight: Santiago was the first dog I have ever come to love. Dogs are quintessential Type 2 lovers with no ego; Susie is a Type 2 with a generous, compassionate heart.  (The heart types are 2, 3, and 4). As a Type 3, I am the heart type that has  as difficult a time connecting with my own feelings as I am expert at reading others’ feelings and desires. Santiago opened up my heart so much that I could feel deeply and weep over my loss of him as an expression of my love for him. And Susie took over where Santi left off and just sat quietly with me in my sorrow, having no need to “fix” me.

Leaving Alhaurin de la Torre

Adventure: we were informed that under Spain’s emergency alert, a taxi could not take more than one person. Each of us had to take an individual taxi to the airport. Taking TWO separate taxis to the airport was a strange first for us.

Angels: our courageous drivers got us there safely with no police intervention!

Departing Malaga Aeropuerto:

Adventure: we stepped into the cavernous departure lobby to check in. There were no lines. In fact, there were no more than ten people in that airplane hanger-sized space. As you can see from the photo above, ours was the only flight that was not cancelled that day.

Angel: British Airways  2713 took us safely to Gatwick, south of London, and from there we caught the transport to Heathrow for an overnight stay.

Almost Missing Our Miami Connection:

Adventure: as we got ready to set out from our hotel, we discovered the shuttle was no longer running and we had to walk the mile and a half to Terminal 3. We arrived only to have the gate agent inform us that we had missed our check-in time by  5 minutes.  I (Jon) was so mad I swore under my breath and was about to let her have a piece of my mind.

Angel: Susie caught my eye and said, “Ocean God, Ocean Prayers, Jon. You’ll get a lot more cooperation from her if you’re kind.” Grrr. God’s oceanic peace started to well up within me. Lo and behold, the gate agent found a flight to Miami with the whisper—not a promise– of a connection to Denver.

Enneagram Insight: People sometimes experience Type 3s as being impersonal and projecting a “get-out-of-my-way” vibe when they are thwarted in the pursuit of their objectives. I had been monitoring and tweaking our return plans for ten days after the Spanish lock-down began. I had finally settled on and purchased what I considered to be the optimal route (i.e., the route least likely to have cancelled flights and open hotels even if we did get stranded somewhere). The interchange with the Heathrow gate agent triggered my reactivity as an achievement-oriented Type 3. I perceived her to be an impediment to executing that optmized itinerary! Susan, as a loving Type 2 Helper with a God-inspired Type 9 Peacemaker tri-type, helped me see the gate agent as a human being and not an obstacle to my plan.

Susie’s Chacala Journal Entry

Six years ago, it was our 25^th anniversary and Jon and I were celebrating early, compliments of friends who have an apartment in the charming little fishing village of Chacala, Mexico and graciously offered the space to us.  One morning I was floating on my back and contemplating the vastness of the sky above me and the ocean beneath and around me. This ocean is teeming with life from microbial cells to beautiful titanic whales and we know the ocean covers 70% of the earth’s surface. That’s HUGE! So if you happen to believe in God, which I do, it’s natural to think the ocean reflects the magnitude and beauty and creativity of an astonishing and awe-inspiring God!

Thinking all these thoughts while floating in the water, my next realization was that if I had an Ocean God,  I needed to start praying Ocean Prayers.  Crazily, over the last long bit, Ocean God, Ocean Prayers has become the theme of my prayer life, so much so, that I can look at Jon and simply say, “Ocean God, Ocean Prayers” and he knows whatever we’re facing at that moment needs needs out-of-the-box Ocean understanding!

–Susie

On Being Nearly Stranded in Miami:

Adventure: Our flight arrived almost an hour early! Thank you Ocean God! We had a chance to clear customs, gather our luggage, and catch the last flight out of Miami. Problem: Homeland Security stopped us for having so-called contraband (two tangerines we got on the airplane and forgot to leave behind!). We were told to wait for security—even though there was no one behind us or ahead of us!

Angels: In addition to their very gracious British hospitality, the cabin crew generously granted me a bucket-wish item: touring the upper deck of a 747 on our way to Miama!

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Upon arriving in Miami, after being run through the gauntlet of CDC questions, inspections and delays, we finally got to another angel. A Miami gate agent put us on standby for the last flight to Denver. We hurried and arrived at a nearly empty gate. That whisper from Heathrow became a shout! We boarded the flight and made it home to Denver International Airport.

Enneagram Insight: From my experience at Heathrow, I knew it would be easy for my Type 3 to get activated—especially since I hadn’t checked for room availability in Miami. I kept cooler inside and could have the eyes of gratitude to see how the Miami gate agent was in fact an angel facilitating our timely trip back to Denver only an hour later than my original plan. While there is much more to tell, these few Adventures and Angels deepened awareness of our personal transformation even through this ordinary trip under extraordinary COVID-19 induced circumstances.

YOUR TOOLKIT: Whatever our experience of race, if we have unresolved pain or color-blindness or other forms of denial, it will either have been transformed or it will be transmitted. I encourage you to take some time to journal about your sense of racial identity or lack thereof. Is there a part of Jon’s story you resonate with? What have your BIPOC experiences or relationships been like? How is that similar to or different from others you grew up with? What would you want to leave behind or see transformed from your past? What one thing is yours to do going forward?

#COVID-19 #Enneagram #Type2 #Type3 #Type9 #747