This past weekend I flew. Some call it a canopy tour. Some call it ziplining. But I call it the closest I've ever come to flying through the air without a plane surrounding me. I knew it would be challenging. Exactly how challenging? I had no idea.
Just like when I quit smoking. I knew it would be challenging. Exactly how challenging? I had no idea then either, but I knew I had to do it. With the help of this forum and some major determination I WAS doing it. And over the past 5 years, I started challenging myself in other areas. I realized exactly how much smoking had held me back and I was determined to make up for lost time.
Okay, back to this past weekend. After a few practice runs, think bunny slope and gradually getting more difficult, I'm now preparing to zip on the steepest and fastest zipline. The guide says people have achieved speeds up to 55mph. What I didn't know when I signed up for this was that you have to stop yourself, you must slow yourself down before you reach the platform at the end of the line. The guides showed us how to do this.
I was really nervous and scared at this point. But off I went. It was thrilling and terrifying flying through the air at rapid speed above the treetops. The whole time I was panicked about being able to stop. I wasn't able to slow myself down quite enough, so the emergency stop kicked in just before I reached the platform and I began sliding back down the cable. I'd been holding on so tight that I lacked the strength to pull myself up the steep incline back to the platform. The guide had to come out on the line and bring me in.
In those moments before he got there, I was hanging hundreds of feet in the air holding on for dear life. I knew I was safe, and I was pretty sure I could hold on, but that did not make it any easier in the moment.
Yep, last Saturday was my greatest challenge since quitting smoking. I had no idea how many parallels there were between this story and my quit journey until now. For those of you just beginning your quit, hang on tight. This forum, the people and the information you will learn WILL save you. You have an enormous safety net here, all you have to do is hang on and believe. And if you need a little help, just say so. There are so many wonderful folks who will jump in to help. These folks have been there. I promise, if you do just that, you will succeed.
The fact that I have not smoked in over 5 years blows me away. The fact that smoking never, ever crossed my mind while I was dangling in the air, or when safely back on land, blows me away even more. Maybe if I had these fancy new wings last weekend my story would be different. I'm kinda glad I didn't because I rather like this ending. Or is this a beginning? Ah, the beauty of this journey really does get better and better and I will never, ever stop being grateful for it all.
~Sally
