This afternoon, Roman and I headed to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport to return home after a weekend of AAU basketball.

We walked into complete chaos in the TSA area—it looked like we had gone back a few months to the government shutdown. We were a couple of hours early, but I was nervous that we wouldn’t make it through the line before getting Roman to his gate (more on our separate flights in a moment). The lines weaved without much organization. After getting his boarding pass, we tried to make our way to the end of the line. We were told to head down the line and look for a blue flag. We found the woman holding the green flag and asked how much further until the blue flag. She informed us there was no blue flag and that we should head back the way we had come.

We head back. Once again told to head back the other direction and look for the guy in a red shirt. We follow the directions, except the guy with the red shirt is nowhere to be found. Back to where we started, we go.

The original woman who tried to help us decided to join us on our journey for the redshirt guy or the blue flag. No luck. She tried to speak with a couple of airport employees, but they ignored her. Frustrated, she told Roman and me, along with a few others who had joined us, to follow her. She was taking us to the priority lane since no one was helping her—that was all she needed to do. What would have easily been an hour in line was less than 15 minutes.

One crisis avoided.

I mentioned getting Roman to his gate was a concern. That’s because I booked a different flight from him and some of his team—some of the team was scheduled on the direct flight I was on, and the rest were on a flight that had a connection in Dallas. I wasn’t thrilled about Roman flying to Dallas and the possibility of getting stranded there with a few of his teammates—the only coach that was supposed to be on that flight ended up not making the trip.

We headed to Roman’s gate to see about swapping flights so he could be on the direct and I’d take the Dallas connection—I’d rather get stuck in Dallas than him. Swapping wasn’t an option. But, there were seats left on my flight, so he could hop on the direct flight—all I had to do was pay the difference in the tickets.

Done. Another crisis avoided.

Roman’s teammates got to the airport later than we did since they were riding in the rental bus with the coaches, and the parent chat was naturally blowing up with concerned parents back in Indiana. I pulled up the flight on the Southwest website, and there were three tickets left for the direct flight—we had exactly three of Roman’s teammates who were supposed to fly through Dallas.

Three teammates. Three seats were showing.

I went to the desk at our gate while the boys were in the TSA line to see if there really were three seats left—although I already knew there were. The gentleman confirmed there were, and he’d be able to switch the boys’ tickets once they got to the gate—he didn’t seem concerned that those seats would go while we waited. Within 10 minutes, the three boys showed up, he swapped out their tickets, and I was ready to cover the cost when he told me we didn’t owe anything. Their tickets weren’t even eligible for transfer, which meant we'd need to pay, but he had just enough power to make it happen without any additional expense.

And like that, the third crisis was avoided.

During our TSA wait, I told Roman everything would work out. The woman took us to the priority lane because of how I treated her and the energy I was carrying through the chaos. I also told him things happen to work themselves out when you’re operating in alignment—and I just smiled at him.

I can’t prove that I’m right that my energy towards those who helped us made any difference.

But I can promise you that had I been a jerk, Roman would be on his way to Dallas right now, and his connecting flight would have been delayed or canceled. The positive energy compounded in my favor, and the negative energy would have compounded against me had I carried it.

When chaos shows up, meet it with positive energy and watch it all settle in your favor. It’s not luck or coincidence that everything I needed to see happened, happened.

See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,

JC