A Life Prepared

On January 15, 2009 US Airways Flight 1549 made a heroic landing in the Hudson River. The plane had been hit by a flock of birds and lost both of its engines. Minutes after taking off the pilot successfully glided the plane and landed the plane, fully intact, in the Hudson River. The heroic pilot, Chesley Sullenberger, 57, (known as "Sully"), was recently interviewed on 60 Minutes. What struck me the most from that interview was when he said to Katie Couric, “I think, in many ways, as it turned out, my entire life up to that moment has been a preparation to handle that particular moment.” Wow!

Looking back over his life it is easy to see how this is true. He was a fighter pilot in the Air Force. He was a skilled glider pilot. He was a safety expert and taught airplane safety classes. He indeed, was uniquely qualified to safely land that plane.

I wonder what might have happened had “Sully” said no to any one of those things. What if he hadn’t said yes to those safety classes and become such an expert on airline safety? What if had never taken gliding lessons? What if he didn’t have that history of flying during adverse conditions in the Air Force? He needed and drew on all of those skills in this emergency. 155 people survived that flight, because this pilot said yes when the opportunities were presented to him. Because he had said yes, his life was prepared for this critical moment.

Life presents us all the time with opportunities to grow and to evolve. We may not know why we feel drawn to say yes to something in our life. Back in 1987 I felt drawn to go to Unity Village and take some Continuing Education Classes. I didn’t really know why I wanted to take those classes. I wasn’t planning on becoming a Licensed Unity teacher. I didn’t think I would do anything in particular with the credits I was earning. I just felt a need to grow spiritually and to connect on a deeper level with God and with Unity, so I went. It was such an amazing experience I went back a few more times.

Years later, in 1990 I felt a call to go even deeper and I applied for ministerial school. While filling out the application, I realized that in order to qualify for the application process, I needed those credits that I had earned. I hadn’t known at the time I took them that I would need those credits, I just felt called to take the classes. Because I said yes to that inner call, I was prepared, and had the exact amount of credits I needed to apply for ministerial school.

I’m sure you have had a similar experience…a time when you did something or learned something and then months, even years later you needed to call upon those very skills or credits earned. Most of us don’t have as dramatic an example as “Sully”. Most of us don’t save hundreds of lives. Yet all of us can live our lives in such a way that we are prepared for whatever life brings us. We begin by staying connected to Spirit, listening for the call, and saying yes. By saying yes today, we prepare ourselves for whatever life brings us tomorrow.

Yes Man

I have a talk I give when I’m trying out at a church entitled “Just Say Yes”, so I’m no stranger to the idea of saying yes to life. While I believe it is important to say yes to our dreams and to those “calls” of spirit, I also know that sometimes it is just as important to be able to say no.

I have a friend who says yes a lot. I think it is because she has trouble saying no. She is very generous and gives and gives of herself and her resources to friends and family. Some of us have been telling her she needs to say yes less often. So she’s been working with a new statement: “that doesn’t work for me.” It’s a fancy way of saying no without having to actually say the word.

Carl Allen (Jim Carrey) has mastered the art of saying no. He’s a loan officer in a dead end job who had his heart broken in love. He hibernates in his apartment watching videos and comes up with all kinds of excuses to keep from going out with his friends. One friend finally shakes him out of his inertia and invites him to a self-help seminar where he is shamed into making a covenant to say yes to absolutely everything. It is no surprise that his life dramatically changes!

Carl says yes to giving a ride, and then all of his money to a homeless man and ends up having to walk miles when his car runs out of gas. Some of his yes choices seem to get him into trouble, but he continues to say yes, yes, yes. Would you like to pay the entire bar tab…yes. Would you like to drink Red Bull all night...yes. Would you like to go outside and fight…yes.

I remember growing up and being upset because my mom always seemed to say no when all of my friends were saying yes. I can still remember my mother asking me, “If everyone asked you to go jump off of a bridge would you do it?” Well apparently, according to this movie the answer should be yes. (You’ll have to see the movie to see why this works out okay.)

The point of this movie isn’t that we should say yes to everything with no discernment, rather it points out that when you have had a lifetime of saying no, sometimes you have to get a bit radical to break out of that pattern. Sometimes you have to force yourself to say yes even when you think you want to say no. Carl learns that he hasn’t just been saying no to others, he had been saying no to himself, and to a greater life. In the end he learns that saying no can also be a way of saying yes…yes to you.

My friend does not have Carl’s problem. She has a lifetime of saying yes. We could all learn a few things from her. Now, by getting clearer on what works for her, she is learning to say yes to herself.