What 42 Years in the Sky Taught Him About Life, Intuition & Starting Again | Chris Crowther

What happens when life takes you from the skies to the water—and then into an entirely new chapter?

In this episode of Soul Sync, I’m joined by Chris Crowther: former pilot, Norfolk Broads skipper, storyteller and author. Chris shares a life that has moved through aviation, travel, reinvention, creativity and the quieter wisdom that can emerge when we stop assuming life has to follow one straight path.

We explore what years in the air can teach you about perspective, the freedom and stillness of life on the Norfolk Broads, the courage it takes to begin again, and why storytelling can become a powerful way of making sense of the lives we have lived.

This is a warm, reflective conversation about following what calls you, trusting the chapters you did not plan, and allowing yourself to become more than one version of who you thought you were.

In this episode, we explore:
✈️ Chris’s 42-year career as a pilot
🌊 Moving from life in the air to life on the Norfolk Broads
🧭 Reinvention, identity and starting a new chapter
📚 Writing the Jack Fellows mystery series
✨ Intuition, perspective and the unexpected turns that shape a life
💬 Why it is never too late to follow a different path

If this episode resonates with you, please leave Soul Sync a rating or review. It genuinely helps more curious souls find the show.

Connect with Chris:
https://allthingsnorfolk.com/places/chris-crowther-author-and-writer/

Connect with Jason:
Website: www.jasonpaulmedium.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jasonpaulsoulsync
Newsletter: Subscribe at the bottom of any page at www.jasonpaulmedium.com

Guest ideas, want to share your story, get in touch with me at hello@jasonpaulmedium.com

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🎧 Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.

Transcript

Welcome to Soul Sync

Charlie Kelly Medium 0:03

Hello and welcome back to SoulSync. It's me, Psychic Medium Jason Paul. And it's first of all, I want to say I hope you've had a lovely weekend. And there's a real novelty in me even saying that because I'm recording this episode in the present, which probably sounds very strange. But actually, um, a lot of the time when I release SoulSync episodes, um, I have to do them quite ahead of time because it all depends on my schedule, because I'm working during the day doing a full-time job, but you know, all of a sudden, overnight, like I said, um, I now find myself in the position that I'm in. So uh I hope you've had a lovely weekend. The sun has been shining here in England. Now, my next guest takes me back to a time in my imagination when I was 18 years old, cabin crew for Virgin Atlantic, flying around the bloody world, absolutely loving it. Um, my life was riding high at that time. Not a care in the world, earning uh beer money, but living a champagne lifestyle. That was definitely the life. And my next guest took me right back to there in my imagination. So let me introduce you to retired pilot Chris Crowver. Now, he's been flying for more than four decades, he's in his 80s, and I first became aware of Chris via a BBC News article which was titled, Does the UK Have a Blind Spot on UFO sightings? So Chris one day was flying a plane and literally saw a UFO which changed his perspective um on life in some ways. And we have a conversation where Chris tells us about that experience. He tells us about his time flying around the globe and what he's learned, and also about a young uh boy that he helped that went on to become his guardian angel. Um, so he's had his foot somewhat to speak in this world and the next. So uh I love Chris. Lovely conversation. Enjoy Chris,

A Pilot’s Mindset: Staying Calm Under Pressure

Charlie Kelly Medium 2:13

welcome, welcome, welcome onto the Soul Sync. It's lovely to talk to you.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Lovely to see you, Janice, and thank you very much for inviting me.

Charlie Kelly Medium 2:22

Oh, well, it's it's absolutely lovely to have you on. And I will say that I came across a how I came to know of you is I came across a BBC News article, which just absolutely jumped out at me because to say from the very beginning, you are a retired pilot and you flew for a very long time, didn't you?

SPEAKER_00 2:46

That's right, yeah. 42 years total. Although I've been retired from it for 24 years now, but I had uh 42 years in flying and flew 22,000 hours. So, yeah, fair amount of my time was spent a lot.

Charlie Kelly Medium 3:00

I bet that was difficult for you when you left as well, because that's such a uh it's it's it's like a lifestyle, isn't it? Because I was saying to you before we got recording that I was cabin crew in my very young days, and there's some there's something so exciting about that lifestyle.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

I don't know if it felt to you like it had got past its best before date when you retired or no, actually, uh strange enough, after 42 years, I didn't miss it at all when I finished. I was very content in my new life. I didn't miss flying, didn't miss Africa, didn't miss the guys I'd flown with for all those years. The only thing I did miss was actually having a job to do. So I I did take another job skippering passenger boats on the Norfolk Broads. But no, I didn't miss flying, and uh I never have actually, but I had a wonderful 42 years when I was doing it. But 40 years.

Charlie Kelly Medium 3:50

You must have been in it as well in the in the beautiful days of probably when I first joined this cabin crew. The older cabin crew used to say to me, Oh, back in the day it was a lot more longer layovers and whatever. You was in that era, I imagine, Chris.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Oh, that's right, yeah. Yeah, I actually

The Unexplained Encounter Over The Wash

SPEAKER_00 4:04

started on open cockpit biplane. So yeah, I I'm I'm very grateful. I think I had the best years of flying, yes, when I was doing it.

Charlie Kelly Medium 4:13

And this I I would say even before we got recording, I was saying there's something about, and I observe this as being cabin crew, about a pilot's mindset, you know, the training that you go through and the kind of you know, even the worldview, it's very process-driven. What is a pilot's mindset like to lead us kind of into this story of what you experienced? Because it's very logical, isn't it? Very mathematically minded uh as a person profile without putting you in a box, Chris.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Yeah. I suppose one thing you which you you do learn in flying is to concentrate on what is happening now. Of course, you do have to be thinking ahead quite a bit with flying and what weather is and what the situation is, but not allow yourself uh to be distracted by what could go wrong and start painting devils on the wall. Treat the situation as it is at the moment and be prepared to handle it when it arrives, but don't be distracted by going through all the things that could possibly go wrong. Because in flying, if you think about all the things that could go wrong, you you'll uh have a nervous breakdown before you're finished.

Charlie Kelly Medium 5:19

You'd be too scared to get on the plane. Um it's a big responsibility, isn't it? You know, you're not just there to fly a plane, you are responsible for you know, it's uh everyone's life and and that of the you know, what is a very, very, very expensive machine, essentially.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

That's right, yeah. I mean, when you're flying passengers, yes, you are very responsible. Although probably rightly or wrongly, my attitude always was well, if I get there, so will they. So yes, that's getting there myself safely, and they just followed along behind.

Charlie Kelly Medium 5:55

So, to kind of lead us into this, from what I understand, you've had something that's puzzled you for half a century, connected to something you experienced when you was a pilot. Tell us about this story, Chris.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Yeah, that uh actually occurred in February 1978. Well, I was still flying for an airline back here in the UK. We operated not only an airline, but also corporate aircraft for different corporations in the uh Norwich area. I was co-pilot on one of those flights. We were coming back from REF Linton on Ooze, back to Norwich, coming across the watch at uh 7,500 feet, when Easter Radar called us up and said, We've got unidentified traffic, opposite direction to you, very fast moving, hide unknown. And we looked up, and this, whatever it was, went right past our starboard wingtip. So fast that it's hard to form a definite impression, but it what looked like a dozen black spherical balls, no idea what they were, and uh no explanation, and air traffic couldn't go given any explanation either. What they were, who knows? Whether they're extraterrestrial or not, who knows? But they were certainly unidentified because even radar didn't know what they were, where they were from, or where they were going. So remain something of mystery to me to this day. But researching these things afterwards, there have been lots of encounters with spherical objects, which are put down as UFOs. So, uh and even some people have uh actually filmed them from aircraft. Mine were actually going very fast indeed. Some appear to be just floating, but uh these ones went past very fast. No idea what they were, but uh something which I've never forgotten, and one of the mysteries which has remained with me in my uh flying career.

Charlie Kelly Medium 7:50

Well, I'm looking at a picture because the uh the BBC generated an image of what it was you saw, and it literally does look like balls on either end, um, almost like a cell. There's kind of a like a cell type look to them in some way, but I can only imagine that must have you know absolutely puzzled you. And I will put the the picture on my YouTube so people can view it, but that it must have really shocked you, and you must have thought to yourself, what on earth?

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Yes, indeed. Yes. I mean, I've always like a lot of pilots, I've always had an interest in UFOs and uh are they real or are they not? But of course, up to that time, my idea of a UFO was something like a flying saucer or something like that. This was totally different to anything I could have been envisaged, although now I've come to realize that uh it's a common factor in a lot of UFO sightings, these spherical balls, which no one has ever found out what they are. But that depiction which the BBC did, that computer graphic, was very accurate indeed to

What Other Pilots Have Seen

SPEAKER_00 8:56

what I actually saw. They did a very good job of uh reproducing that.

Charlie Kelly Medium 9:00

And the funny thing about it, if you actually look at the scale uh of it compared to the plane, it is substanti. We're not talking about a small object here. We're talking about something that looks in uh what's the word I'm looking at in scale size to be bigger than the aircraft itself.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Yes, yes, in total area, I should think they were. And I couldn't quite decide whether they're actually joined by something or not. I got the impression that somehow they were joined up, but it went past so fast that I couldn't be exact on that or not.

Charlie Kelly Medium 9:30

Well, you do kind of imagine, don't you, when you sort of hear of UFOs that it is going to be some flying saucer that suddenly beams you up. And, you know, I think that's what we've obviously seen in movies. But, you know, my journey into even mediumship and what I do now was I was wanting proof that there is more to this world than we can see. Because I've always had a hunch that my eyes, in some ways, are fooling us more than they are, you know, uh helping us in a lot of ways, because you know, our eyes can only see so much. And my curiosity was very peak peaked into things like UFOs, extraterrestrials. And on this podcast, I've heard so many different stories of people who have seen things that there is no way that it can be explained. And I must admit, when I first was on this journey, Chris, it was you know, I'd hear a story and I would think to myself, yeah, okay, yeah, right. But when you start hearing the same story from so many people and people who are in, you know, positions like yourself, Chris, as a pilot, you know, you do have to stop and pay attention to that. So what is it? Because obviously you it must have very much shifted your perspective to then going from having a curiosity to a belief. What is it that you've heard from other pilots about things that they're seeing out there that just, you know, is not explainable?

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Yes, I uh I haven't talked to many parts about it, but one I did at at length in the early 80s when I was out in West Africa, we had a very bad aircraft uh helicopter accident. So bad that they brought an accident investigator over from the United States to investigate it and write a report on it. And I met him the same afternoon he has arrived in our mess, a chap called Joe Sislow, an ex-US Marine Corps pilot. So certainly no one's fool. And not talking to him. I said, Right, you nice job. You go around the world investigating aircraft accidents. He said, Well, yeah, apart from being an accident investigator, I'm also a UFO investigator. So, of course, my interest was immediately

Are We Really Alone in the Universe?

SPEAKER_00 11:40

piqued. And in fact, as I was saying to someone the other day, it's the only time in my flying career when I never went to bed that night, I sat up talking to him right through the night and went to work the next morning without ever going to bed and without ever getting changed or anything. But his he had developed this interest himself in UFOs because he'd had two quite serious encounters himself. One was driving along in his car in the United States when suddenly bright lights ahead, the car stopped, and then he came to about two hours later with two hours missing from his life and not knowing what had happened at all. He suspected uh it had perhaps been a kidnapping, attempted uh one of those, but he had no memory of that at all. And then in Africa himself, when he was flying in Africa one night at uh Ford Air Base, they had UFOs circling around the camp, and all the people were out of the tents watching these UFOs circling around their camp at night. So he was an absolute believer, having had two experiences himself. One possibly an abduction, and so he became a UFO investigator and was absolutely totally convinced that such things were happening. About 90% of his investigations, he said there was some other explanation, but 10% were truly a UFO encounter. So he was totally convinced on it. Very interesting.

Charlie Kelly Medium 13:04

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Yeah, absolutely. So many very responsible professional people are witnesses to these things, people who are trained observers anyway, like pilots. So, yeah, you've got to, you've got to accept it. Like so many things. Most people say, Oh, I won't believe it until I see it myself. That's a common thing, isn't it, with people?

Charlie Kelly Medium 13:24

But well, it almost sounds like you were in that camp, Chris, and then it happened uh to you yourself when you was flying.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

No, no, not really. I I always did believe there was something there. I always did believe that uh I I found it hard to believe that in this great universe we were the only ones, and that uh I could quite imagine. And then when I went out to fly helicopters in Africa, that really to me was the nearest thing to being a UFO myself, because there we were flying over areas, very remote areas, some of them I'm sure had never seen civilization ever. And we'd be flying over for years and years, and people would look up and see these strange things flying overhead, and we'd look down with no intention of ever landing and going down there. We're just flying over. Sometimes, of course, you did have to land, and some people would sneak up and peer at you, and uh, you'd be observed, and then they'd probably go back to their village and say, I saw these strange white men in funny clothes get out of this strange flying bird thing. Just like a UFO, you know, we say, Well, if there is, then why don't they land in the middle of London and uh step out and say hello, you know, I'm from Mars or whatever. But we never, we, you know, flying in that situation ourselves

Why Pilots Kept UFO Sightings Quiet

SPEAKER_00 14:34

had no intention of uh landing and uh going down. But uh we were observed, I'm sure, and people told what seemed like far-fetched stories of these strange things flying overhead. So on a larger scale of the universe, I can quite accept that that uh is the case.

Charlie Kelly Medium 14:52

Well, it's I've actually heard there I had someone on this podcast in the very early days who basically dedicated their whole life to a book called The Feuba Prophecy, which is a book that was written by an author that went into hiding, a French author, who was actually abducted by extraterrestrial beings and taken to somewhere called the ninth planet. And this there was the guy that was on the podcast who went to track this guy down who'd basically gone and sort of lived a disconnected life off grid. And it honestly, he dedicated his whole life to this book and this man who'd been abducted. And I have to admit, when I read uh the book, it really shifted my even it evolved my thinking even further when it comes to extraterrestrial beings. I have to say, I must admit that I feel I 100% believe that there is, but I don't think it's in the way that we believe it is, like aliens. I feel that there's beings of different energies and different uh dimensions. And that funnily enough, if I was to actually say what do I think a being would look like, there is something about spheres and and uh balls that seem to think that that I can imagine that's how I would picture it if I was to see it. Right. Um you know, I do think that. But you know, when it did happen to you, do you did you just keep your, you know, very much your

Government Secrecy, Reports & Public Disclosure

Charlie Kelly Medium 16:20

your call? What was your colleague's reaction to this at the time?

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Yeah, I was I was the uh I was just the co-pilot on that day, and uh the captain actually flying with me was the actual chief pilot. We we discussed it when we got down, didn't put any official report in. I think our attitude was, well, it was military radar which had been involved. So if anyone's going to put a report in, military radar should put it in. We had two passengers in the back of the aircraft. We certainly never discussed it with them. You you don't want to start telling your passengers that something flew very close to your aircraft and you don't know what it was. So we certainly didn't have any discussion there. But uh in those days, how it is now, I'm not sure. But in those days, pilots did tend to not want to make it public at all. At best, you become a bit of a joke in the crew room, possibly, you know. And at worst, some pilots it affected their whole career, and they were looked at sideways from then on. So it wasn't a thing which you took much further. I was reading a report the other day by someone who'd interviewed 20 pilots who'd all had UFO experiences and encounters, and not one of them had ever put in a report about it. They kept it quiet to themselves. Things perhaps things are changing a little bit now. I hope they are.

Charlie Kelly Medium 17:41

But back in those days Why do you think they're all doing that? Is it because you don't want to alarm the passengers? Please put your seat belts on because there could at any moment be something coming by.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

Yeah, and of course, it seems to be the official government policy, doesn't it, to keep the whole thing under wraps. And I've never fully understood why that is. I mean, one explanation is oh, they don't want the public panicking, but I don't think they would. I think the public would be better if they knew the full facts. And of course, the uh congressional hearings over in the states at the moment are trying to open up the files and to make these things more public and to find out what the truth

Africa, Perspective & What Really Makes Us Happy

SPEAKER_00 18:21

is. I hope.

Charlie Kelly Medium 18:22

I think it's about money and power. I think it's because if if you started saying to people that, and this is just my view, yes, there's more to life, and actually every everything that you need lives within you, and you can connect to your guides and whatever. You know, I I I think governments and power want us to live in the scarcity mindset of there's not enough to go around. And I I I've I agree with you. Why would you not want that to be known? If there's more to life than we know, why not release that information? You know, governments are there meant to be there to protect us, not to not inform us of of such matters.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Exactly, yes. And of course, as soon as people think something's being kept secret from them, they become very suspicious and think, yeah, no, what what is it they're not telling us? Is it that bad that they're afraid to tell us? And so people's imagination starts uh.

Charlie Kelly Medium 19:12

Well, the problem is it fuels conspiracy theories as well, doesn't it? Then because when something's being withheld, then it's what you know, uh some people's imaginations start running wild, don't they?

SPEAKER_00 19:22

Exactly. Yes. I've read I haven't met Chimet, but I've read pilots who have put in reports, official reports, and then eventually they've gone online to try and read their own report again and found that nowhere can they find it, and that nowhere is it uh logged or even recorded or anything. So very suspicious. Yeah.

Charlie Kelly Medium 19:42

Well, I don't think that's the extraterrestrial beings making it vanish.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

No, it's no no, it's a simple servant.

Charlie Kelly Medium 19:50

It is, yeah. Well, it's interesting that some people have obviously gone out of their way to do that, and I would like to hope now that people would put those reports in. What did it did it do anything to change your kind of, you know, did anything change about the way you were living your life as a result of that? You know, uh, did it shift your worldview so much that you suddenly became a lot more open-minded?

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Not not that so much, though, because I was always reasonably open-minded about UFOs and whatever. I did have a very open mind on it all, but probably going out to Africa more than anything expanded my my views on life and uh gave me a different completely different view of life.

Charlie Kelly Medium 20:28

Why? How how how how did your view change and why was that?

SPEAKER_00 20:33

One um uh finding how how people, so many people with virtually nothing living in incredibly primitive conditions. If you got really into the tropical rainforest, some of the villages there were absolutely back, still in the pure stone age, and yet people totally contented. Us back here in the the first world, or put it that way, the civilized world, the more we have, the less contented we seem to be. But there, people seem to be living the life we spend our life trying to achieve, and yet they were doing it by having nothing at all.

Charlie Kelly Medium 21:11

There's so much to be said

The Boy Who Became Chris’s Guardian Angel

Charlie Kelly Medium 21:13

for that because even when in my days, and you know, this is what I think I think I had such a rich tapestry in my life being cabin crew so young, was it taught me at a very young age, you know, see going to places like Delhi, Mumbai, uh South Africa. It it really made me see that as well in so many ways. And we're upset. The problem is now we're obsessed with money. We are absolutely obsessed with money and material possessions and having more, more, more, more, more. All the while longer, people are becoming more miserable. You know, I learned myself, Chris, about well, it must have been about six years ago. I started a business, grew it to multi million pound level, thinking all the you know, I'd be finally be happy then. And then funny enough, the the richest I ever was was the most miserable. Miserable I ever was, and actually the most happiest I ever was was in those cabin crew days when I was earning essentially beer money trying to live some kind of champagne lifestyle. You become very resourceful as cabin crew, Chris. I must say, you know, you really shows one's resourcefulness because Virgin used to be where I used to work anyway. It used to be a very nice airline, but they didn't pay very well.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

Right. Yes. But a good life, though. You had a good life and wonderful memories to bring from it. That's the treasure, isn't it? The memories you bring from life. Not the material, not the figure on your bank account or anything like that. It's the memories that you carry with you.

Charlie Kelly Medium 22:36

It strikes me that you're a fairly spiritual person in yourself because one of the things you put on your guest form here was about, you know, realizing about your guardian angel has been, you know, what you sort of with you, protecting you, guiding you. You put some interesting stuff down there. How have you come to have that opinion?

SPEAKER_00 22:56

It's a bit of a long story. To go bring it back to the beginning, I was uh oh, way back in the 1970s. Uh, for a summer, I was doing flying some pleasure flights around the pier at a seaside resort. And one day, rather dull day, not many people there, this uh couple came along with their young son, who was about 11 years old. Very, very handicapped, very deformed lad. My heart went out to him immediately. Uh and they said, He's mad keen on aircraft, he's never flown, so we we want to give him a flight because in two weeks' time he's going into hospital for a series of 22 operations to try and improve his lifestyle. So I said, Right, well, let's put the dual controls in the aircraft. And I took him up and I even let him handle the aircraft and uh gave him a good flight. He was so great, a wonderful lad called Paul. And I said, Right, um, you know, keep in touch with me. And when you had all when you got out of hospital finally, I'll take you up for a flight in a helicopter then. Anyway, sadly, after about a year, his mother wrote to me and said, after 19 operations, sadly, he died in hospital. Oh, that was terrible. And his parents, of course, were absolutely distraught. I got them to come along and I took them up in a helicopter to try and help, but I think it had almost the opposite effect. They were they were still very distraught from their loss. Move on a couple of years, very strange thing. And I'd moved into a new house and the central heating needed servicing. And I found a local heating engineer who would come and do it. So he came along that day, serviced my central heating, and then we sat having a cup of coffee afterwards, and somehow he got round the subject to life and death and mortality.

A Message From Spirit That Came True

SPEAKER_00 24:47

And he said, Who do you who did you know about two years ago? A very deformed lad, very handicapped. And I said, Well, I know exactly who you're talking about. And he said, Well, would it surprise you to know that he's here with us right now? He said, As soon as you opened the door to me this morning, he was stood behind you. And he said, just to show that, and he's keeping it, he's your guardian angel now, he's keeping an eye on you. You really helped him. You gave him a wonderful experience, and he says he's gonna look after you for the rest of your life. And just to show he's watching over you, he then related all things that had happened to me that week, and they were all absolutely true. Not only that, he told me what was going to happen in the next few months. Significant things. Oh, he really is, man. And I felt I had a guardian angel there for the rest of my life, and I did sense it and felt it, and I've come through some pretty hairy experiences, and I feel my guardian angel has brought me through those. I've had a wonderful life, and everything I've managed to achieve, I feel I've been guided through my whole life by that uh by that one young man.

Charlie Kelly Medium 26:04

It's interesting you say that, and uh even as you're saying that, I can feel the emotion. I almost feel like I've got this boy around his energy around me now, even as I'm talking, actually. But I just I think that's so beautiful. And the fact that he told you about things that haven't even had come to be yet, you know, we could there's a word for that in mediumship, we call that prophecy. Um and it's you know, it's a very beautiful part of mediumship, a part that doesn't often get you know a much as much exposure as it should do. I've had some really crazy things prophesised from the spirit world through my granddad, actually, who is my guard, who's my guardian angel, and he's become my guide in the spirit world. So it's it's very funny how we pick up guides and you know the fact you feel him around you and the fact he's always there, you know, shows just what you did for him and how much you touched him. And I I very much feel in life, you know, the only thing that really matters, I believe, when we get back to the spirit world is the acts of kindness that we've we've we've shown to other people. And I feel that when we go back, this is my belief, I believe that when we go back to the spirit world, the first thing we do is we have a life review, and in that life review, we basically see all the ripples of kindness and love that we've given, and you know, we get to feel that. And I actually

Why the Hardest Times Can Shape Your Life

Charlie Kelly Medium 27:27

believe sometimes that the people that have given us the hardest time in earth, I think that sometimes we'll be get probably get back to the spirit world and we go and shake their hands, I imagine, because they're great as teachers. You know, we thank them for what they've done.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

Absolutely, absolutely, but uh no, it was incredible. Some very specific, you know, things told me that were going to happen. He said, You're going to end up flying for a Dutch aviation company with 80 aircraft around the world. And I said, No, I don't think so, you know. But within six months, I was flying for a Dutch company with 80 aircraft. So very simple.

Charlie Kelly Medium 28:03

Couldn't make it up, could you?

SPEAKER_00 28:04

No, couldn't make it up. Absolutely not.

Charlie Kelly Medium 28:07

Um something else that jumped out to me that I wanted to ask you about, Chris, as well. Is it, you know, as we all do in our lives, you know, we have hard times. And I think sometimes we can be going through hard, sad, disheartening times, and sometimes just think, you know, it's me, it's my life, whatever. I think it's even more so in the world that we live in now with social media and people all sort of uh, you know, it's very easy to feel that sometimes you you're having that difficult time and it's just you going through it. But one thing that jumped out at me is, you know, it felt to me that through those difficult times that you've had along the way and asking why me, it sort of changed your perspective. And how how how do you look back at life now? You know, because it feels to me that you look back at things as a whole, and it, you know, you you you see the connection in everything.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

And that's right, yes. I mean, like like everyone, I've had my share of rain falling in life. And as you say, the the immediately your reaction is, well, why me? Why is this happening to me? But I've come to realize that you've got to continually ask that same question immediately, you know. Well, why me have had such a great life? Why me have had all the wonderful opportunities that I've had? Why have I been blessed with such a wonderful life? So you have got to keep asking that question, why me, for good or for bad. And often the worst things that happen to you in life, way down the line, you realize we're all all fitted into the pattern of your life. And that in the end, the end result is it it the jigsaw is completed. So you've always got to ask why me the good things as well as why me the bad things.

Charlie Kelly Medium 29:46

We only ever ask, don't we, why me when it's something bad. I'm trying to think myself, do I ever say, why have I been this successful? No, I don't, because I think no, I've worked for that or whatever it is. You know, you don't think like that, do you? You only ever look at the glass half empty when that with that one uh phrase there, why me?

SPEAKER_00 30:05

Exactly, yes. But I can, you know, so many times in life I can think the

From Pilot to Murder Mystery Author

SPEAKER_00 30:11

pathway through life, opportunities came and you chose to go this way or that way, and you chose the way, and it turned out to be the correct way. As though you were being guided. And I feel I have been guided right through my life and followed.

Charlie Kelly Medium 30:25

Well, I think it's sometimes the most difficult things, isn't it? The changes and sometimes even what seems like the worst thing that can have happened in your life. And I can think of a number of occasions in my life when my life, you know, literally felt like I was in the in the gutter, but not just in the gutter, face down in the gutter. And but actually it's those points in my life that have created the greatest amount of change, and I wouldn't be where I am today without them. And you know, sometimes the first step of uh when you're in the gutter is just turning over and looking up and realizing you could get out of it.

SPEAKER_00 30:59

Yep, that's exactly it. Yeah, you you mustn't dwell on that negative side, must you? You you've got to try and look ahead to where it all might be leading. At hard times, it's very hard to see where it might lead, but in the end, when you look back a few years later, you can see it all fitted into the pattern in the end.

Charlie Kelly Medium 31:19

So you are a writer now, you write interesting stories. I'm looking for what genre it was because it jumped out at

Never Let Go of Your Dreams

Charlie Kelly Medium 31:28

me earlier, but I can't find my piece of paper with it written down now. Is it crime? Um, for instance.

SPEAKER_00 31:32

Uh murder mysteries, yeah. Or murder mysteries, there we go. And aviation thrillers as well. Yeah. I've written a couple of aviation thrillers and uh eight murder mysteries, and one children's book as well. All the murder mysteries are said on the Norfolk Broads where I live, and the chart the children's fantasy adventure, that's also said on the Norfolk Broads.

Charlie Kelly Medium 31:52

So you're full of life and vitality in your 80s. What is your secret, Chris?

SPEAKER_00 32:00

Well, not to not to give up. I always say if you want to keep going, you've got to keep going. If you want to be able to keep doing it, you've got to keep doing it. So by writing, I hope I keep the old brain ticking over, and uh and well, that's the answer, I think, is to keep doing it.

Charlie Kelly Medium 32:18

Indeed. Well, if you do want to find out about Chris's books, you can go to the show notes, check them out, check out Chris's website, and also the very interesting photo um I will put up as well so you could uh have a look at that. So, Chris, in true soul sink tradition, thank you firstly for coming on and sharing your um story, your experiences. And I think you you talk with such grace. It's been a pleasure to have you on. So, in true soul sink tradition, do leave us on a final thought today, then.

SPEAKER_00 32:48

Well, I would say what I say to everyone is never let go of your dreams. Uh, we all have dreams of what we want to do in life, and so often life becomes mundane. You say, Oh, well, I'll never achieve that now, and you just accept how it is. But I always say, never let go of your dreams, because if you don't let go of your dreams, every decision you'll make along the road of life will be directing you towards that dream. And eventually you'll get very close and hopefully even achieve it. So keep the dreams going. Never say, Oh, that's it now. Just sit back and I never made it or whatever.

Charlie Kelly Medium 33:24

I love that. Yes, I I so agree with that because you know, if you give up, then you're not steering anywhere even towards it. And if you you know where you want to go, eventually, even if it's not going right, you will get there in the end if that's the if that's your destination. See, there's something in that there, Chris. Do you like what I did there? Just brought that into back into the airline world at the end there.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

Yeah, that's right.

Charlie Kelly Medium 33:48

Yeah, yeah. Chris, achieve the destination. Achieve the destination, indeed. Thank you for coming onto the soul sink.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Oh, thank you, Jason. It's been great talking to you, and I really appreciate it.

Charlie Kelly Medium 34:02

Oh, honestly, that just brought me right back to my cabin crew days. Um, I used to absolutely love my job at Virgin Atlantic. Um, that's probably the only career regret I've ever got is leaving that job to become a police officer. Um, as you can imagine, it was all gay and fabulous at Virgin. Um, you know, I've got so many stories I could tell you about my cabin crew days. Um, more stories than I have time right now, my darlings. But until next time, lots of love.