Jumping

Today, a good friend and I will be jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. Yes, we are going skydiving! It’s finally going to happen! Scheduled for my 60th birthday, it has been cancelled twice due to weather but today we will do it! 

What does this mean for me personally? Well, it’s one more thing to cross off my bucket list but that’s not the symbolic reason for doing it. Facing my fears? In a way,  but still not the deep seeded emotion that drives this endeavour. Exhilaration? Yes! For me it is a death defying action that feeds my need to face a reality I live with every day. I will die. It is inevitable. We all will. It is one of the only certain things we will do in our lives. 

How does one go about accepting this fate? Well, without it, I don’t think we would strive towards anything. We wouldn’t whittle away at life, facing it head on. We’d have too much time to accomplish things and appreciate life. I know that sounds like a great plan, but is it really? I’ll just leave that there for one to ponder.

I worry, a bit, about my expectations for this jump. I can only imagine the thrill of freefall for 30 seconds and maybe a flight through the clouds. 30 seconds is a hell of a long time when you think of falling–200 km/hr–for that length of time. Try counting in your head and conceptualise roaring through the air. I imagine the adrenaline rush will be blood-tingling, mind-boggling and hair-raising. I think the thrill will last for days, weeks even. I bungee-jumped the day I turned 30 and I was high for 2 weeks. Will this be the same? I will let you know tomorrow!

peace balance empathy