Writing letters to travel by. My fear of flying started when I had kids and realized life was incredibly fragile. And I don't understand how flying works for birds or planes. I 'crashed' on the flying issue when I was flying back from Birmingham one January and my plane was on the tarmac for two hours. There was a blinding snow and ice storm at DFW, and the pilot was having the plane de-iced while waiting to take off. During all of this wait, the battery of the plane died, and the pilot made some kind of announcement like, "We'll charge this battery back up and try to take off." Oh holy cow. I started to cry and then I couldn't stop. The flight attendant let me off the plane and I took a train back to OKC.
Interestingly enough, that flight was canceled two hours later, and I was well on my way to OKC while the others were stuck in Dallas. After that, I took medicine to fly so that I wouldn't lose control again -- in fact, I just slept. The pills were cheaper and neater than drinking my way from one hub to another.
As time has gone on and I am flying more for business, I am doing better. I take medicine less and less, and I figure that if the plane goes down, the world will continue on. My kids are old enough to be okay, but I still want to be that voice in their heads. I always tell Jay that I will haunt him when I am gone ;-)
Another coping strategy has been to write letters (long ones) to each of my kids before I leave for one of my trips. This gives me opportunity to impart my last words of wisdom and love to them, and it's very comforting. When I get over my fear of flying, I'll have to think of another excuse to write these letters because they are so precious to me. I love to think about each one of them and write my heart to them.
On one of my trips, I spoke with Scott right before I left and told him the letters were in the utility room by the laundry detergent. He said, "Now do we read them when you leave or just if you die?" Kids are perfect.
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