Not again!" That was my initial reaction when I began to feel all the familiar symptoms of airsickness coming on. We were just underway on a flight from Boston to Victoria, Canada, where I was going for a family visit.

When I first moved thousands of miles from home, I knew it was time to get serious about treating this problem through prayer. Whenever I've had any kind of trouble—illness, pain, a relationship problem—l've always turned to God and found healing.

I've found that healing comes as prayer shows me a clearer view of my relationship with God. As I understand that relationship better, my life and body express more consistently the harmony that naturally exists between God and what He creates. So, a healing often starts with asking myself, What do I know about God? And, What does that fact about His nature mean for me, as God's child?

By reading Mary Baker Eddy's book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, I've learned that God creates us to be like Himself, perfect and complete. We're all God's children, and each of us has a unique identity as a spiritual creation. This child—Parent relationship isn't something we have to earn, but a fact we can claim for ourselves.

But at the moment on that plane, facing a five—hour trip and feeling very ill, I didn't feel very spiritual. So I prayed. I got very still and listened for God's direction. The thought came to me to read the chapter titled "Creation" in Science and Health, and right on the heels of that idea I thought, But that's not what I want to read. Well, I realized I'd asked God for direction, and now I needed to be obedient.

As I read, one sentence stood out to me. It begins, "Thought is borrowed from a higher source than matter . . . ." It occurred to me that "borrowed" thoughts are those that reflect God's nature, and that in His creation there's no room for thoughts that don't come from Him—the higher source. The full sentence in Science and Health is: "Thought is borrowed from a higher source than matter, and by reversal, errors serve as waymarks to the one Mind, in which all error disappears in celestial Truth" (p.267).

Nearby, a child began to cry, and I'd overheard earlier that this little girl was already tired from a previous nine—hour flight. A phrase from a hymn came to mind: "In heavenly Love abiding, / No change my heart shall fear" (Christian Science Hymnal, No.148). I thought of that child and me and everyone on the plane as abiding in divine Love, in God. She continued to cry, and I remember thinking, This child is irritable—just like me. I quickly realized that wasn't a thought "borrowed from a higher source," and refused to accept it as true about either of us. I'd also overheard that this child and her mother had been away from her father for a month. I silently acknowledged that our Father—Mother, God, was right there, embracing all of us, and this Father can't be missed because He's always with us.

The child stopped crying, and I felt engulfed in God's presence, cherished and cared for. I continued to pray through the remainder of the flight, and felt totally free from illness. I'd found my peace. About a year ago during a long flight, the air sickness symptoms returned. I began praying with some of the ideas l've described and then turned to praying for a family member, forgeting about myself. I was well by the time we arrived, and I had an illnessfree return flight. And I flew with complete freedom a few months later. I now look forward to flying and think of my flights as perfect times for prayer.

Shannon Hodgins
Lynn, Massachusetts