{"id":7498,"date":"2011-08-17T07:06:16","date_gmt":"2011-08-17T12:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/?p=7498"},"modified":"2011-08-17T07:06:16","modified_gmt":"2011-08-17T12:06:16","slug":"safely-falling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2011\/20110817-7498.htm","title":{"rendered":"Safely Falling"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was completely out of control, but I was attached to one who knew what was going on and who was in control.<\/p>\n

The air roared past my ears as we free-fell towards the ground.<\/p>\n

My mind strained to remember my instructor’s directions, even though I could no longer hear his voice.<\/p>\n

\"Soaring<\/p>\n

Arch my back, kick my bottom, hands hanging on to my harness chicken wing fashion.<\/p>\n

Content that I’d followed instructions, I could enjoy the ride.<\/p>\n

Exhilaration. <\/p>\n

Free-falling. <\/p>\n

Amazing.<\/p>\n

He pulled the chute, the free-fall ended far too soon. I wanted it to last forever. <\/p>\n

\"Soaring<\/p>\n

Now he guided my hands into the chute’s handles, asked me if my harness was comfortable. Everything was fine.<\/p>\n

He told me he would be loosening the connections that held us. I’d drop a bit lower, so inches would separate our bodies. <\/p>\n

Now, here, I felt a glimmer of fear. I knew it would be safe, I knew I’d still be attached. But it wouldn’t be the same. Once he’d lowered me, I wouldn’t be able to feel<\/i> his presence. Would I be able to make it without that sure sensory feedback reminding me that I was safe?<\/p>\n

I would choose to trust, I told myself–and so I did. <\/p>\n

\"Flying,<\/p>\n

I relaxed as the distance grew between us. <\/p>\n

I was still safe, still connected, still hearing his voice. He was still guiding the chute.<\/p>\n

He asked me if I wanted to do anything fancy–circles, loop-de-loops, or the like. “Or would you rather just hang out?”<\/p>\n

It was hard to push the words from my lungs: “I’d rather just hang out.”<\/p>\n

“That’s okay,” he told me, “we’ll just hang out.”<\/p>\n

And so we did, arms outstretched, hands in the chute’s handles. We hung there, suspended between sky and earth, observing the scenery below as we softly drifted along.<\/p>\n

My head started spinning. I willed it to stop. I was enjoying this too much to be sick.<\/p>\n

I wanted to see<\/b>. <\/p>\n

\"Preparing<\/p>\n

I told my instructor that I was getting dizzy. He encouraged me to breathe deeply, said he’d go gently.<\/p>\n

I breathed, my eyes taking in everything I saw. <\/p>\n

Beside me, Joanna and her instructor were doing crazy moves. <\/p>\n

I smiled and breathed and wished I could be flying forever, and never.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was completely out of control, but I was attached to one who knew what was going on and who was in control. The air roared past my ears as we free-fell towards the ground. My mind strained to remember my instructor’s directions, even though I could no longer hear his voice. Arch my back, … Read more Safely Falling<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[4],"tags":[1011],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7498"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}