A Thousand Words

Pictures tell a thousand words.  Or a least a few words.

Like this one from 1997 of me and my dear college friends-

If you are unable to understand the words that are evoked, I will help you.  They go something like this:

1997 version - "We look so nice, wearing our nicest dresses.  We are resident advisers and we are cool."

2011 version- "What were we thinking wearing those outfits?  We look pretty ridiculous.  Except for Jen, because she always looks fantastic. Why did I wear that silly watch with a dress?"

Here are the four of us last weekend in Red Rock Canyon, just outside of Las Vegas - 

Again, I will give you a little commentary:

Bethany: "I am going to teach these ladies how to jump off a mountain."

Sarah: "I am so glad I am not changing diapers right now."

 Kelly: "I love you guys, but this is nuts."

Jen: "Yay!  I love jumping off of things!"

I am so blessed to have these amazing women in my life.  They have been my rock of friendship for the past 15 years.  Our Vegas weekends include long hours sitting at the breakfast table reviewing our lives, lots of laughing and crying (always simultaneously) and looking at old photos that make a cringe.  

This was year #4 of our Vegas convention and this time Bethany offered to teach us how to jump off a mountain while attaching us to ropes.  It sounded interesting.  I was game.

Let us not forget that these 3 friends of mine had all jumped out of an airplane(s) before - an airplane that was flying in the air- because they are not afraid of anything.  I don't even like to fly in an airplane while wearing a seat belt.  And Bethany flies airplanes for her job and has leaped 150 feet off of platforms above gorges for fun....  I think they are all a little more adventurous than me.  

These pictures do tell a story.  Yet what they leave out is one important lesson learned: Trusting yourself is incredibly important. 

Bethany and her amazing husband, David, were our teachers and it was easy to trust them.  They taught us exactly how to manage every step and showed us how the safety measures were being taken to keep us from plummeting to the ground.  That was a helpful lesson. 

Even with total confidence in the system, we had to believe that we could do this.  We had to control the ropes and our speed - and not panic while dangling off the ground.  

After a successful first run, Kelly put the fear in to words.  If we didn't trust ourselves, we couldn't do it.  She was spot on. 

I am so lucky that my life has been full of opportunities to build trust in myself, so that even when I fear, I have my faith in God and I can find the trust in myself to take risks - even when it is difficult.   

Just in case anyone was worried about bodily injury, there was an emergency crew doing a drill that day-so even if all my ropes had failed me -I would have had 30 men running to my rescue.  Hhhmmm... maybe I should have sprained my ankle or something - so that they could practice their rescuing.  All for the greater good, of course.  


Here we all are - jumping off a mountain: