Excerpt from Cammie Wolf Rice’s The Flight: My Opioid Journey

Excerpt from Cammie Wolf Rice’s The Flight: My Opioid Journey, Chapter 1

Cammie Wolf Rice is a mother, an advocate, an author and an agent for change. She has personal experience dealing with the dangers of opioid misuse through her own son’s battle from childhood through his passing at the age of 32. Cammie has transferred her pain into purpose. She has made it her mission to raise awareness about the opioid epidemic and alternative pain management strategies. Among her accomplishments is creating a new position in hospitals, Care Coach, to provide families in need struggling with these issues. 

Her book, The Flight, chronicles her journey and is out now.

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One day, God decided to launch an airline. Every city will be serviced; every airport is convenient. You can fly anywhere your heart desires, and while you may not arrive on schedule, you will always arrive on time. There’s one thing that separates God’s airline from its commercial competitors. Every ticket is free, but it will cost you everything.  

Service is exceptional. The staff attends to your every need. In fact, they know what you need before you ask. “Overwhelm each passenger with kindness” is their motto. The people you meet, and the conversations you have, remain with you for a lifetime. The passenger list is a beautiful mosaic. Next to you may be a corporate CEO, and next to him a homeless man. Right across the aisle may be a nun, and next to her an atheist.  God never discriminates. All are welcome, even those who don’t believe. But while the people are different, the purpose for their journey is exactly the same.  This airline wasn’t built to safely deliver you to your destination. This airline was built to transport you to your purpose. This airline was built to take you places you would never go alone. On each flight, right after the safety announcements, the flight attendant draws your attention to the front as she reads a message for your journey.  

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Heavenly Airlines. You are here because you have somewhere to go. You are here because you have something to accomplish far beyond the plans you’ve made for your own life. This trip will not be easy. There is great turbulence ahead. At times, you will feel as if everything is falling apart. You will reach for someone to hold onto and find no one there. At times, you will want to get off and try things on your own, but let me assure you, your pain is by design and your survival is guaranteed. Just when you want to give up, Heavenly  

Airlines has one word of encouragement — don’t.”

This announcement causes a bit of a stir among the passengers. Most of whom weren’t expecting philosophical flight instructions. People begin to mumble, trying to figure out where each is from and what brought them to this journey with God. 

One woman turns to the man beside her and asks, “What made you take this flight today?”  

The man looks up with tears threatening to fall and says, “I have three months to live.” The stranger grips the hand of the woman, squeezing it as a sign of instant understanding. Another man wearing a thick, multilayered purple coat leans across the aisle and asks the man sitting in stoic composure the same question, “What brings you here?” he asks. “Lost my entire family in a fire,” the man replies. Slowly, he retreats from the aisle in respect, bows his head and resettles in  

his seat.

Others on the flight have no such tragedies. There is a soccer team in the back heading to a tournament, a newlywed couple heading to their honeymoon and even a grandmother traveling to see her new grandchild. It is a mixed bag. I was in seat 2-A.   This was my first flight, well, my first of this kind. I spent a large part of my life on commercial flights I didn’t want to take. Obligations and opportunities can place you thirty thousand feet in the air when just hours before you were relaxing at home.   Everything can be calm, and suddenly things change. Normally, when I travel, I would take all the things a girl needs. In other words, I take everything. A ten-day trip needs twenty days’ worth of clothes. It’s just the way it is. A lady has to prepare for weather, formal and informal gatherings, unexpected meetings, the mountains, the valleys and the beach, even if the place you are going has none of these. Most of my packing never got unpacked, as most of what I would bring would never be touched, but there is comfort in excess.

However, there was something different about taking this flight with God. There were certain rules against boarding with things you don’t need. Rule number one was to travel light. Passengers must take only what is absolutely necessary for the time they plan to be gone. Any delays, any modifications to their schedule, should never cause one to worry. Heavenly Airlines guarantees each person will receive what they need at the moment they need it

Shoes, clothes, coats and jackets are all provided should a passenger find themselves in a bind, which brings me to another unique point about this airline. There are many unscheduled stops. Some stops last for days, some for months, some for years. You never know where Heavenly Airlines will take you, all you know is you will arrive at your destination on time.

To watch the book trailer: https://youtu.be/ZAwfsO4zRWg  

For more information, visit https://cammiewolfrice.com/

 

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Category: On Writing