High Fives and High Ropes

Hi friends! Hope you had an excellent Father’s Day weekend!! A huge shout out the to guy that I get to live this crazy life with……

you hit the lottery I mean, I hit the lottery! Thank you for filling our house will laughter and love. I’m high-fiving myself for marrying you!

Recently I’ve been taking a boxing class that I absolutely love (and that totally kicks my butt). My boxing instructor, Keiko, organized a high ropes course last Friday night “for fun” and in a moment of complete insanity, I signed up for it. Have you ever done one?

Oh.My.GOSH. OHMYGOSH!!!!!

Climb to the top of a telephone pole, stand on top of it, and jump off???? In the middle of the woods? with nothing to hold onto??? What the heck was I thinking???

The thing about a high ropes course is that it is not so much a physical challenge, but a mental one. When I went to Hawaii with my family in February, we went on a snorkel cruise. The boat was two stories high and there was a plank on the second story that you could jump off of into the water. When I went out on that plank, I suddenly had a bit of an anxiety attack for the first time in my life and could NOT jump into the water! Even after Mark and our kids, along with all sorts of tiny little kids, did it and made it just fine, I couldn’t bring myself to jump off. My kids were like – REALLY MOM???

They are all so fearless – they would jump off this cliff into the water if I let them!

I was never fearful before. Is fear something that accompanies getting older? No – I’m not going to wimp out anymore. I’m not going to live my life in fear! The snorkel cruise and the kids thinking I was a wimp = my incentive for trying the high ropes course. I’m not a little old lady. I can use a power saw, I can build stuff, I can figure out html, I am a MOTHER for goodness sake – I can conquer scary things!!!

We got the gear on – helmets, and harnesses that tether the climber to the instructor on the ground with a rope. If you fall when climbing, the instructor lets you down to the ground slowly. It’s all very safe, but still, my heart was totally pounding.

First we climbed a tree and walked across a cable. I was third to go and watching others do it before me gave me courage.

I was a little leery to be up there, but the cable had two ropes on either side to hold onto as we crossed, like a rope bridge, so it wasn’t too bad. After we crossed the cable, we jumped off of it and the instructor slowly lowered us to the ground using the rope. Letting go of the ropes and jumping off was the scariest part of this challenge!!!

The next challenge was to climb a tree and walk across a pole suspended between two trees. As opposed to the cable, the pole had no ropes to hold onto. When I got to the top of the tree, I had to pause and pray for a moment or two to find the strength to let go and walk across the pole. I knew I would be okay, but I was still scared to death!!!

After I walked across it I was feeling all awesome and brave, so when the instructor said an additional challenge would be to lie down on the pole and put my hands and feet in the air (“dead bug” I think this is called) –

I was like SHUT UP – NO WAY – WHAT?? – okay – yes – NO – a lot of nervous laughter –

Okay I’ll try it. I won’t wimp out.

I did it! – then rolled off and was lowered to the ground, miraculously all in one piece.

After the climber gets to the top of the pole, she has to steady herself and then bring her feet up onto the top of the pole and stand erect, without holding onto anything for support. The pole sways a tiny bit, and is 40 feet in the air, so it is a “bit” intimidating. After standing up, the climber then tries to jump to a nearby trapeze bar suspended in the air!

Keiko is so fierce – she just jumped right off the top of the pole like it was nothing!!

After Keiko did it, I tried to hide amongst our group of 10, but one of the ropes course leaders called me out and said “Okay Lisa, you’re up!” When I got to the top of the telephone pole, I desperately wanted to climb back down, but also desperately wanted to find the courage to do something that I was scared stiff to. Literally scared stiff – once I reached the top, I could not move an inch out of complete fear of falling. If I did fall – no big deal, the instructor would just lower me to the ground.

So what do I do? FREAK OUT – pray – laugh nervously – freak out – consider climbing back down the pole – maybe a little swearing – finally climb onto the top of the pole! Yay! Oh but guess what? I have to get off somehow! The instructor tells me it’s time to jump off – I laugh hysterically – freak out – can’t I just stay up here? – okay fine!! – JUMP! – miss the trapeze but actually make it down alive! – woo hoo!!!!

I didn’t know anyone in the group besides Keiko, but everyone was so encouraging and made the experience so fun!! I can’t even begin to tell you what a blast it was and I’m SO glad I did it.

I highly recommend doing a high ropes course, or rock climbing, or hiking waterfalls, or whatever takes you out of your comfort zone and pushes you in ways you never thought possible! At the same time that it’s scary, it’s also exhilarating, empowering, and FUN!

Now to jump out of a plane (NOT!!!!!)