There are times in your life when plans made, and journeys dreamt, suddenly fall apart due to an 'unfortunate series of events', and you can only sum up the disappointment of failure as a weird twist of luck, that is to be a humbly accepted fate, And then there are times when this is just not so.
When my son Cody arrived home earlier in the month, his next journey to Belize was a distant thought that wasn’t to be dwelled upon until mid point of his summer break. The trip to see his mother was to be such an easy to handle event that it wasn’t until we readied ourselves at 4:00 AM for the journey to the airport that he came to realize the location of his passport. It was safe and secure, tucked nicely away - in an envelope - in his sock drawer - in his apartment - on the military base, - 1200 km away.
Cody accepted that the burden of this failed trip fell firmly on his shoulders, and the journey south would have to wait for another time. What he did not immediately know is that a surprise visit from his brother was also waiting for him on this trip.
With a little discussion and weighing of our options we quickly came up with several reasons to let this trip fail and give in as ‘what might have been…’
I am not the type of person to let go of a plan easily, and many heated debates have been sparked in the family from my undying drive to find alternative ways to get things done or create a workaround to reach your goal. I have been accused of not knowing when to quit, or accepting my fate. It is at times like these I catch myself pushing my own values on my kids, and with inner frustration I excused myself and left for work.
My wife Vivian knew of the planned reunion and others to be affected and so she had a quiet ‘talk’ with Cody, when she introduced the bonus of the surprise visit, and his brother called to challenge his resourcefulness on how to get a passport out of a locked room on a military base, the full efforts of creativity and resourcefulness of contacting connections went into effect. By the time I called home at noon, the ‘Discover & Recovery’ plan was in full effect.
I’ll skip the details on what happened over the next few hours, but what is important is that his passport was soon flagged as in transit from its distant home, and my son was busy rescheduling his flight for his family gathering.
The term ‘Next Day Delivery’ holds different meaning, depending on location of origin and location to be received. When shipping and receiving from non-major centers, a few extra days must be added. At 4PM on Wednesday we found ourselves at the end of Canada Posts delivery day, and with less that 12 hours before we were to again be heading off to the airport.
If a lesson is to be learned here, its that one shouldn’t book an international flight without passport in-hand!
Vivian made several calls to the local post office, and through my prodding and pushing with my, ‘never say never’ attitude she made several contacts to Canada Post offices in Edmonton, and Toronto. Although our local office closes at 5:00 PM the distribution center was open busily sorting the next days deliveries. A woman named Waceke in Toronto narrowed the search, and connected her with a Mr Peter D in Edmonton. After explaining our predicament in detail, and understanding that a 9AM delivery would STILL be too late, Mr. Dickson went beyond what is required in his regular line of duty and gave the extra effort to locate our package.
By 8:00 PM Mr. Dickson had searched 18,000 packages, and he knew he had little time left in which to offer us any hope of receiving our precious package this evening. At package number 18,001, and shortly after 8:00 Vivian received a call confirming the package had been located, and how it might be picked up. With little time to spare Cody retrieved his passport, and finally relaxed knowing his trip was confirmed to continue.
This trip could have become an unfortunate event, that spoiled a summer surprise, but instead became a joyful reunion between two brothers. Perseverance of Cody and his covert connection, Vivian's focused tracking and checking, and of course the dedicated employees at Canada Post help turn an ‘unfortunate series of events’ into a successful re bonding of brothers on a little island in the Caribbean.
Now go out and make it a great day.
Persist where others concede, and glow in the outcome of your efforts
Blaine
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