Some days are lessons in how to breathe and to select calm over chaos. Though I’m fond of chaos and the creative cycle, I more importantly appreciate daily blessings.

Today I saw a friend off at the San Luis Valley Regional Airport. Boutique Air’s representative weighed her checked bag and wished her a safe flight. My friend asked the attendant if the bags would be checked all the way through to Sioux Falls. The woman assured her that they would. Over at the security entrance, she fumbled for her photo ID; so, a security officer assisted her with her bags. Another placed her belongings in the tubs and gave her a pass to not to have to take off her shoes for scanning. Finally, she walked through the screening arch and she was ready to head off. She waved at me before she headed to the plane. 

As I headed to my next appointment in the Baca, I enjoyed the music on the radio and noticed only minimal traffic.  Before I arrived, I had to text the facilitator for directions to the meeting as I had misplaced my earlier notes. Within a few minutes simple directions came across and my vehicle read them to me. Now, I could arrive nearly on time. The meeting was a calm reminder of persistence in dealing with bureaucracy. Then I said my good byes and headed back home.

Somewhere along Highway 17, I discovered I didn’t have my glucose monitor. Thinking back, I tried to recall where I might have lost it. Somehow it had fallen out of my purse (I do need to replace the purse because it props open unexpectedly). I know that I looked around my chair in the meeting and had not seen anything. Plus before I slipped into the car for the trip back, I looked by the door in and out but did not see my little black case holding the monitor.  “Maybe I dropped it in the airport,” I thought.

It was almost 4 P.M. when I arrived home. I returned a call; then, I called the SLV Regional Airport and reached Will, the manager of operations. He was very kind and said, “That’s a pretty important thing to lose. Hold on let me check the lost and found.”

When he returned to the phone, he said, “We have it!” 

I was so glad and thankful to hear those words. After finding out that he would leave it at the Boutique Air counter and that someone would be there until 7:30 P.M., I told him, “I’ll get my shoes on and be there right away.”

Thirty minutes later, I checked in at the counter and the Boutique Air and the young woman brought the case out to me.

“Thank you so much,” I said.

“I’m glad we had it for you,” she said.

My friend called me when she got to Sioux Falls to let me know that the bag didn’t make it on her flight but she explained how nice the agent was taking care of all the details, tracking the luggage, and getting it to her by the next flight. 

So the help my friend received from Boutique Air, through security, retrieval of her bags, and also finding my glucose monitor case are quite a few blessings for one day! Thank you San Luis Valley Regional Airport and Boutique Air!

—Nelda Curtiss is a retired college professor who enjoys writing and fine arts. Contact her at [email protected]