I recently had a zipline adventure. I am not very comfortable with heights, but the thought of ziplining was my motivation. Having watched movies and seeing friends do it, I wanted to try it. And then my daughter went to summer camp and described her zipline adventure. So I was primed and looking forward to my zipline adventure as well. As it tuned out, it was more than a zipline adventure for me. It became an inspirational lesson. I hope you enjoy reading about it.
A Zipline Adventure
I was excited at the thought of zip lining even if it was an indoor zipline. It would be my first time and I was really looking forward to it. I wanted to feel the thrill of hanging by a rope and zipping through the air. There was a small snag though, I had to go through a rope obstacle course. The course was on two levels about 18 feet high in total to get to the zipline.
Thinking it through now, I realize I am afraid of heights. In my head though, there is no logical reason to be afraid. Yes, one is several meters (or kilometers) above the ground, but as long as you have taken all the necessary safety precautions, there is no reason to be afraid, right? Besides, everyone else seems to be getting by just fine.
The truth for me is my fear of heights is not paralyzing or any such thing. I don’t lose my wits and become hysterical, I just need to breathe and everything will be fine…. That’s what I told myself, but the moment of truth would come.
Rearing to go
Anyway, back to the ropes obstacle course. There were several bridges between landing spots. They were made from pieces of wood and ropes of different lengths, sizes, and shapes. I had to navigate a few of them to get to the zip line. There were stairs as well, and I had it all figured out. I would go up the stairs onto the wooden bridge with handrails that looked like a ladder first, and then take the stairs to the zipline. Easy peasy. After the zipline, I would figure out how to get back down. It didn’t look too bad, and it was worth swallowing my fear for the experience of ziplining. I was willing to do it.
So we get all hooked up and I am rearing to go. Up the stairs, across the ladder bridge with wobbly legs, up the next set of stairs, and tada. I was in line to go on the zip line. That wasn’t so bad I thought. Soon I would be zipping through the air, I watched the two ladies in from of me go and it was finally my turn. The lady at the start point gave instructions on what to do when I got to the end and then she asked me to step up to the platform for “take-off”.
Say what?!
I gave her a look like to say “You want me to step onto that thing?”, she looked at me like, “Yeah, what are you waiting for”. Then I realized what I was about to do, first I was going to get on a platform that looked like a diving board (a firm one thankfully), and then I was going to step off that platform and fly through the air…… all of a sudden I realized my mistake “Why am I doing this?” I asked myself. “Why did I think the idea of zip lining was fun? What am I trying to prove and to whom?”
The lady looked at me like “Any day now” and I thought, “Well I came here, so I might as well…”. Then I took the first step of faith onto that ‘diving board’ lol. It held beneath my feet, and I thought, “OK, I can do this”.
Baby-steps
I took several baby steps, then hooked on to the upper rail and walked painfully slowly to the edge of the board. “How on earth am I going to leap off this board?” I thought. I felt like I literally had to jump off a cliff and forget that I was securely hooked to the rail. It felt like indoor skydiving and I was about to jump off a plane. I don’t know where I got the courage, but I told myself “There’s no going back now, just do it” and then I ‘walked’ on to thin air.
The next thing I felt was me ‘floating’ through the air and I thought, “This isn’t so bad, the rope actually held and I am doing it! I am having my very own zipline adventure! Yayy!!” I was just beginning to enjoy the ride and all too soon I saw the landing board ahead, “get ready” I told myself, I folded my legs and was thrown rudely onto the area around the board. It took a minute to find my feet and I was firmly on the board and making my way back to the landing post.
“Not a bad experience,” I thought, but now there lay a bigger problem ahead. The annoying obstacle course was ahead of me and I had to choose between two impossible courses to get to the next landing. One was a ladder bridge with no rails! The other was a bridge made of ropes with only more hanging ropes for hand support.
Paralyzed!
I took a minute to consider my options and then I realized the sad truth. I was never going to get off that landing!!! Remembering how I wobbled across the ladder bridge with handrails, I knew I would be hopeless on the bridge without anything to hold on to except the rope that secured me to the overhead rails. The person ahead of me wobbled with shaky feet across my other option i.e. the bridge made of only ropes, and my fate was sealed. I was going to sit on that landing till they brought a ladder to get me down.
The worst part was, as I mapped my route back to the exit stairs, I realized I would have to cross at least 2 crazy bridges to get to the stairs. At that point, I knew I was going to grow old on that landing. There was no hope and no way I was getting onto any of those bridges in front of me.
So I stayed there and watched everyone else go and come and meet me on that spot again and again. At some point I even tried signaling to the man on the other end of the zipline to tell him I was stuck, he just stared at me blankly. I imagined what was going on in his head, it must have been something like “Take your time lady, we are open till midnight”.
Hard Choices
I must have been on that landing for at least twenty minutes, I watched a young lady go on the zipline three times and try a different rope course each time. Some people were polite and asked, do you want to go on this one (only one person could get on a bridge at a time) I just told them, “Nope, you go ahead”.
After a while, it started sinking in that there was no knight in shining armor coming to rescue me. Actually, the world had continued revolving and no one noticed I wasn’t a part of it. My family called out encouragement from below, but they could not have realized what was going on in my head because I had a smile on my face all through.
They must have had an idea how I felt, but they could see the obvious long before it ever dawned on me… the obvious fact that I got myself up there and I was going to have to figure out a way to get back down. Clearly, no one thought it was an emergency situation. Maybe they had seen different versions of my reaction before. Or maybe the tactic was “no pressure, she will figure it out eventually”. So, figure it out I did.
After going over my options again, I decided I was better off on the ladder bridge with no handrails. I had watched enough people go on the two bridges immediately in front of me and, believe it or not, they seemed to cross that one more easily. So, with my heart in my mouth, I took the first step and got on the ladder bridge with no handrails.
A Healthy Dose of Courage
I painfully took one step after the other, speaking to myself at every step “I can do this, I am doing this” I repeated again and again, over and over, out loud for that matter. You see, at this point, I was beyond embarrassment. I was all about survival, I needed to make it off that platform. I had been there too long and I needed to get off and move on. There was only one way to do that and once I told my head that was the only way, my heart soon followed and my body along with it.
Upon making it to the next landing point all of a sudden, I had hope! I could see the exit stairs and there was just one more obstacle to cross to reach it. I looked at my options… Obviously, I was not going back on the bridge I just came on, that would take me back three steps. The other two options were another funny-looking wooden bridge and a rope bridge which looked significantly better because there were ropes going from the foot of the bridge to the rail at the top and would provide hand support as well.
At this point, I need to mention that something had shifted on my inside. I was still scared, but I had just had a victory at something that I had considered impossible some minutes before. My mind was already considering the possibility that maybe the next one was not so terrible after all. I still spent about ten minutes on that second landing watching others come and go, though.
Strength from an unlikely source
A little girl who had passed me twice must have understood my distress. She mentioned that the rope course was easy compared to the wooden option. I thanked her for the offer of support and made up my mind to go on that one. The mother of the little girl smiled at me from the ground below. And I smiled back mouthing “I don’t know what I am doing here”.
Again, I gathered my courage, and I took the first step onto the bridge of ropes. This time my family was full of whoops and cheers, Mum was doing it again! It didn’t feel as scary as the first one. Maybe because the ropes were easier or maybe it was just because I had found courage.
One step at a time, find your balance then take the next step. The concentration on my face was painful to watch as I later reviewed the videos my family shot. One step after the other, with words of encouragement all along “You’re doing it” “You’re halfway through” “That’s the spirit” and “Well done”. All the voices combined with my newfound courage and the realization that I was not going to fall off helped me to keep going till I got to the other end.
Concluding my Zipline Adventure
“So what’s the point of this story?” you ask. And “What were you thinking getting on the obstacle course up in the air in the first place?”. I learned two important lessons. The first is “If you really want it, you will pay the price to get it”. If you are still making excuses, then you have not yet reached the point of no return. I wanted my zipline adventure bad enough to make me attempt something that was out of my comfort zone.
More importantly though, beyond the zipline adventure, a middle-aged, not-usually-athletic, afraid-of-heights me found the courage and strength to take the first step and get on some wobbly wooden and rope bridges. Because that was what was required for me to get out of the situation I was in!
The second lesson is “Challenges are not usually as hard as they seem. Once we take the first step to overcome them, we usually find the strength to go on”. These ‘lessons’ are not meant to downplay the realities of people’s real-life challenges. But in most cases, all we need is some motivation and the right support, plus a healthy dose of courage. And we can overcome and be victorious!
Philippians 4:13 – I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (NKJV).
Mark 9:23 – Jesus said unto him “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” (NKJV).
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