Flying through the air on a skinny metal cable wasn’t the scary part, it was trying to decide when to put my gloved hand on the cable behind the pulley to start slowing myself down so I wouldn’t crash into the nice people standing on the platform waiting for me to come in with a soft landing. I totally panicked and did what they told me NOT to do in Zip Lining 101---never put your hand in FRONT of the pulley on the cable or you might just crush your fingers. Thankfully, it was the first zip line of the day and it wasn’t structured to cover that much distance or to go too fast, so even though I “braked” incorrectly, I did slow down and come into the landing pad fairly easy and I didn’t crush my fingers! And of course, it helped that my bestie and “partner in crime”, Kris, was there to cheer me on. If you’re going to do something terrifyingly scary, make sure you do it with a friend. It always heightens the fun when you can both scream together!! The five minute training that morning started with the nice Guides showing us the correct way to plug and unplug the ropes around our body with a convenient hook-thing that you were supposed to attach to the continuous metal cable that was going to take you around trees and over bridges through the zip line course. It all looked pretty sturdy to me. A safety harness around my waist, a lightweight but durable hardhat on my head and gloves to help me hold the pulley and guide it on the cable. This was going to be a breeze. And then we had to go across the parking lot on this crazy swinging bridge to get to the first zip line and I thought I was going to quit then and there. It was a breezy morning and as the bridge started swinging I thought I was going to lose every bit of my morning energy “breakfast for champions” right then and there. “If I can’t even walk across this bridge, what makes me think I can zip line for a half mile through the trees?” My brain began to yell all kinds of crazy things! “Get out of here!” “What are you doing? You don’t even like looking down a flight of steps!” “Your bike at the gym doesn’t leave the room and you think you’re gonna fly over water?” All the while my friend Kris is smiling from beneath her big white helmet and saying “Isn’t this AWESOME?” It had been her idea that we needed to something adventurous to celebrate our birthdays and of course I was going to go along cause I’m so brave and all. But now there was this young guy who looked a little like he would be the kind to jump out of a hotel window into a hotel pool three floors below if given the chance….telling me to just be sure and keep my hand on the pulley and to fold my feet underneath me and if I felt myself starting to spin while in flight, I could just “go with it” and do a 360 up in the air. Right. Not happening. Not in this lifetime. Before I knew it, I was indeed flying through the air and holding tightly to my pulley and turning it to the right and back to the left, whatever would keep me facing FORWARD, and saying “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!” when I felt myself trying to spin. Then my feet would touch the blessed solid earth and the guide would say “good landing” and I would believe him and think that I must have missed my calling for surely I was made to be a professional zip liner person. Slowly and surely throughout the day, the zip lines got higher and higher. We faced more swinging bridges and walked across really thin pieces of wood, and once in a while the Guides would think it was really funny to make the bridges swing if the wind didn’t seem to be doing the trick. I think they noticed my particular fear of that cause it always seemed to happen right when I was in the middle of crossing the bridge. Let me stop and ask, can you even call it a bridge when you’re walking on what appears to be a very long handle of a broom strung 500 feet apart between two trees? Anyway, I showed them. I just stopped walking. That’s right, if you guys want to get to your lunch break you better stop messing with this lady. After every course, Kris and I would congratulate each other on how well we were doing. Neither of us had actually puked up our breakfast. We hadn’t chickened out and had to call for the four wheeler of shame to come and get us. We were actually DOING this zip lining thing! And you know what? I believed I could do it cause my friend believed I could. She didn’t doubt me for a second. And she knew that if I did get a little queasy at the thought of stepping off a nice safe platform into thin air with nothing under my feet a warm afternoon breeze, she would be right there to cheer me on. Just like I did for her when she decided to do something I couldn’t bring myself to do….the FREE FALL jump. This was the last part of the day. A chance to just free fall from a tower. You’d be wearing a nice safe harness that would slow you down at just the right time before you CRASHED INTO SMITHEREENS at the bottom. Um, no thank you. But Kris wanted to do it. So I was gonna cheer that girl on! It took her a few tries. She walked to the edge and looked down and I said “you can do it” as I held onto the railing. She backed away from the edge and was unsure. “Come on friend, the first step is always the hardest.” Of course the first step is all you get and then you fall. She walked away again and said “I don’t know.” I told her I KNEW she could do it. She came all this way to finish this course and she just HAD to do it. And that’s just what she did. She went to the edge and jumped. I have the video to prove it. It still makes me sick to my stomach. But she did it and I like to think I helped her a little. We all need friends like that. They push us to the edge. They help us jump. They show us we can really fly when we want too. Kris and I are on a venture of another kind right now, along with some other friends. We had this crazy idea that I know God put in our hearts. This idea of opening a home for women who have suffered from addictions and want to be free—want to be whole again---want to go back to their families they’ve distanced themselves from---want to be able to live the life God has called them too. And we’re all in. And you have to surround yourself with those believing friends. The ones who dream big; who love adventure. The ones who aren’t busy counting the cost, they just want to live BIG for God. After all, when God puts the safety harness on you and steers you in the direction of the trees, you just have to go.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorHi! I am Donna and I'm traveling. It's a journey to discover who I am in Christ every day....no looking back, face to the Son! Come join me! Archives
October 2017
Categories |