Sitting in an airport waiting area, wondering why a flight scheduled for just before 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning could possibly be delayed by an hour by air traffic. I mean, seriously? But, as we know all too well when it comes to flying, we are, as I often say, no more than prisoner of the airlines.

As I look around my fellow potential passengers, I see varying degrees of resignation and boredom and frustration. Granted, it is 6:30 in the morning and, thanks to the joy of air travel, your day is already off to a less than perfect start. People are slumped in chairs or they are trying unsuccessfully to sleep on seating that’s barely comfortable to sit on, let alone sleep on.

What struck me most, though, was this sense of low energy. If everyone had a meter on them for energy, it would barely register. Just keeping their eyes open seemed to take all that they had. And here it was, a day that was just beginning, albeit not in the exact way any of us had planned.

I wondered, for a second, what might happen if I got everyone’s attention and had them straighten and stretch and breathe. I wondered how it might change the shape of their day to move in a way that was nourishing and intentional, to fill their lungs and feel the power of that life giving inhalation and exhalation.

Of course, I didn’t stand in the middle of the airport lounge and try to teach a few mindful movements to a room of unhappy strangers. But I did straighten my own spine and stretch and focus on breath. I did use those moments to appreciate the ability to move, the privilege of travel and to remember the joy of having been with family for the weekend.

As we finally flew home, I thought about a practice that I want to add to my life, to shift those moments of waiting or frustration or impatience and turn them into something else. If I take those experiences and make them mine, if I use them to be mindful and to move and breathe with intention, then, rather than episodes of irritation, they become opportunities, moments to refresh and restore and renew.

I realize all too well that life is short. How much of it have I wasted with impatience and irritation and wishing for the time to pass more quickly? I am going to focus on “flipping the script” and making it all count, building my own energy source, my own reserves and, in this way, continuing to fill my full heart.