You never know when something will come up that is just too good to pass by. I had no idea what today would bring, I was just along for the kids. But I saw that flying trapeze and I forgot my age. Today, I cheerfully proved that I was, indeed 48, but also 48 isn't time to call the exciting parts of life over.
The trapeze was first. All the kids done, they looked at me and didn't give me an out. Not that I really wanted it. The waist harness was tight, but not connected to a thing as I climbed up the ladder with sweaty feet and palms. Halfway up, I forgot my sense, and looked down. I assessed the fact that I was hitched to nothing, that there was no net below the ladder, I had little upper body strength, and that my sweaty feet could slip any moment. Yells of encouragement and a camera clicking its way toward me pushed me forward. A quick instruction on how to make that 30 foot drop was given to deaf ears.
"All the way up," the smallish, muscular young man said, without a hint of encouragement. I clambered atop and held on to what I could find. Buckled in, I felt, at least, that I wasn't going to fall to my death, at least, not if the young man on the ground held me tight.
"How you feeling?", the man on the platform asked.
"Scared."
"Too late now." He said. Easy for him to say.
"Other hand." He commanded as I reached waaaaaaayyyy out for the bar.
"You are nuts," I thought, "I am bigger than you, if I slip just a bit, I fall, and you go with me. And you don't have a harness on."
Obediently, I reached my other hand out in the impossible position of butt tucked, arms stretched, his hand holding my harness so I didn't fall. At least, in hopes that he could actually hold my weight.
I felt a foot in my knees to bend them, and I realized that short instruction on the ground was a joke, because he wasn't giving me any choice on how I would make the free fall. "Hip" he called, and gave me a push, well, a shove.
A free fall on arms that I wasn't sure could hold my weight long. Swinging, remembering to keep toes pointed, because if I was going to go down, at least I wanted to look as graceful as possible.
"Hip" the command was called, and I fell, making a landing that would earn me a "2" on a scale of "10" if it were being judged. Massive cheers from the kids, as well as the teachers. A graceful somersault off the net, and I was done.
Trembling legs, and a shaky smile as I walked off with as much dignity as my shaking body would allow.
The rest of the day? I gave myself a headache doing far too many somersaults off the mini-trampoline, and the bouncing on the large trampoline sealed my fate. I am exhausted. I have had more lactic acid running through my body today than I have in more than a decade. I will pay for that fun, I know. But life, to me, is far more about the experience than it is about collecting stuff or gathering security around me.
Today I reminded myself that I was 48, and that 48 can be an incredibly exhilarating experience.
