Why Walk if you can Fly

Why Walk if you can Fly

As a young adult, I was invited to a skydiving exhibition.  The idea took my breath away.  Most people do not understand why you would want to get out of a perfectly good plane at ridiculous heights. I was enthralled!  However, watching a professional and actually jumping yourself, are two very different things.

As a student skydiver you are attached to a static line that automatically deploys your parachute.  Once you have completed the required training, you then have to pull the cord yourself, called free-fall.  On my first free-fall, time seemed to have stopped.  What was supposed to be five seconds, turned into at least ten and the club members watching from the ground, held their breath! Needless to say the instructor was NOT happy. I froze with fright and must have gone into a passive panic …. before coming back to my senses and pulling the cord. 

Over the next few years, I did a total of 72 jumps and about 20 of those, out of a Hercules. The back of the Hercules plane opens and you run towards the sky as fast as you can.  From that height, you have about 30 seconds of free-fall and really get to fly!

You do not need to jump out of a plane to experience the exhilaration of breaking through personal limitations. Completing anything that requires you to push your own boundaries rewards with a heightened heart pounding, new level of ‘feeling alive’ experience. 

Life offers many other opportunities:

The birth of a child –

The sound of amazing music played acoustically perfect –

Watching your favourite sport live –

Hitting that perfect golf shot –

I have learnt that, for the most part, you get in life what you believe you deserve … and that much of life truly is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I have learnt that anything worth achieving is worth working for and that wishing for something to happen is different from working toward making it happen.  

We need to learn that no one can do it all alone … and that it's OK to risk asking for help. You learn that the only thing you must truly fear is the greatest robber baron of all: FEAR itself.  To give in to fear is to give away the right to live life on your own terms.

We learn to fight for life and not to squander it living under a cloud of impending doom. Life isn't always fair, you don't always get what you think you deserve and that sometimes bad things happen to unsuspecting, good people.

God isn't punishing you or failing to answer your prayers. It's just life happening. You learn that negative feelings such as anger, envy and resentment must be understood and redirected or they will suffocate the life out of you and poison the world that surrounds you.

We are all student skydivers of life – we are attached to the static line called God. We can take that leap of faith and trust that we are meant to live life fully and not only be a spectator.