She’s practiced all the maneuvers and feels ready for everything. “Tower, ready for takeoff.”
“Cleared for takeoff.”
“First solo.”
“Roger.”
The controller glances at another: “Think she’ll be next?”
Wheels roll, wings rise, the sky opens, and heaven and earth release their graces.
Astonished, her late mother surrounds her, smiling.
MJ is an aviator, author, and speaker on ways risk and fear can work to our advantage to dream and explore. She is preparing for suborbital space flight and researching ways to improve astronauts’ long-term space missions.
The ‘Overview Effect’ is the term given to the sense of awe and interconnectedness that is not an uncommon experience of pilots and astronauts. It touches the soul.
It leaves you never quite the same way, or feel about the Earth the same way.