Let Love Do Its Thing

By: Stuart Knight (Founder and CEO) | May 7, 2025

Let me throw something out there to consider.  When something bad happens to a person, it’s a common reaction to feel like a victim.  Especially if you see yourself as being a “good person”.  If that’s the case, it feels even more unfair when those harsh realities of life hit us in the face.  This is how I felt a couple of days ago when the universe slapped me around, while I was trying to do the “right thing”.  To say it was a frustrating experience is an understatement.  

Here’s what happened…

A family that I adore, and feel very close to, experienced a tragedy that was beyond heartbreaking.  When I learned the news, I immediately purchased a ticket for a flight that was leaving in two hours, so that I could attend a service that was taking place that afternoon.  My plan was to fly in for the gathering, then head back to the airport to fly home as I had responsibilities with my own immediate family to get to.  Two hours later, my departure time faded away slowly as I found myself listening to the gate agent announcing flight delay after flight delay, until two hours later I was finally bound for my destination.  I still held hope that I could pull this off.

When I arrived, I knew I would now be showing up late, but felt confident that this family would be accepting of my tardiness given the circumstances.  I got into the car, and was ready to go, and all of a sudden the traffic leaving the airport stopped.  Like, completely stopped.  Now, any person who has flown knows that vehicles moving out of the airport move slowly as they zigzag amongst each other aiming for their preferred exit, but this was different.  The cars actually weren’t moving at all, and I knew something had happened.  Before long I overheard a guy saying there was an accident a few hundred feet ahead, and that all exits from the airport were now blocked.  

I already knew that my original flight delays meant that I would have only 45 minutes to offer hugs and consolement before needing to get back to the airport to catch my flight home.  This new development was now giving me a hightened level of anxiety.  However, I received a glimmer of hope when, in the moment, I got a text from my air carrier saying my flight home was delayed, which bought me a little extra time.  I thought to myself, “I can do this!”.  Well, fast forward to an hour later, and the car I was traveling in had moved about fifty feet.  With each passing minute I could feel the “act of love” that I was desperately trying to show this family slowly slipping out of my hands. 

Another thirty minutes later, while passing the scene of the crash, which was ironically minor, I had to come to terms with the fact that my only option was to turn around and make my way back to the airport to catch my flight.  I realized that I simply couldn’t make it downtown and back in time.  At that moment, I was devastated, and just plain angry that all of this could be “happening to me”. So, I went back to the airport, and defeatedly boarded my flight. 

Soon after pulling back from the gate, the captain said we had to wait 50 minutes before we were allowed to leave, due to weather conditions back home.  After those 50 minutes had passed, he came on again to tell us that we had to wait yet another hour.  After that hour past, he came on with a final announcement saying that our flight was now cancelled.  It was 9:30pm, my phone had 1% battery life left, and I was standing in an airport wondering what to do.  Oh, and I should mention that I was pathetically feeling very sorry for myself.  Why is this happening to me?!  I’m a good person!  

That night I ended up sleeping on my brother's couch, and was out the door by 7:30am the next morning to catch another flight home, without ever seeing the family I came to see.  As I sat in my seat, thirty thousand feet above the ground, I closed my eyes and wondered why I had hit so many hurdles.  What was the lesson?  And after thinking about it for a long time, I couldn’t find an answer.  And yes, within those thoughts, I had the expected tough talk one does in these situations where I said, “Stop whining Stuart, imagine what that family is going through compared to this”, but that didn’t stop me from feeling beat up by the experience.  

However, as I allowed myself to sink deeper into my thoughts, an important lesson slowly began to emerge, which was to accept that much of what happens to us in life is out of our control.  No matter how hard we work, how clever we are, or how good of a person we aim to be, life is going to unfold the way it was intended to.  And each time it does, we are presented with an opportunity to trust the process and surrender, or to fight the futile fight.  We can raise our hands to the universe and say, “You don’t understand the power I have within me, and I will win this battle”, or we can unclench our fists and let the "all-knowing" wrap its arms around us.

Is that an easy thing to do?  No.  Do we have a choice?  No.

Much love,

Stuart

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