Your Edge

Yesterday, I returned from a week in Colorado, where I was skiing with my husband, sister, brother-in-law, and their three children.  We enjoyed the snow in many different ways—skiing, snowmobiling, snow-tubing, and snowshoeing.  It was a wonderful week of play!

While I was skiing, I was thinking of how our fears seem to deepen and widen as we get older.  Things that didn’t scare us when we were younger sometimes paralyze us now.  While we were skiing, my nieces and nephew didn’t allow their fear to hold them back. They followed us through the trees, over jumps, and down some mogul fields, all without a peep.  It made me think of this poem that I learned in high school.

Come to the edge.
We can’t, we are afraid.
Come to the edge.
We can’t, we will fall.

Come to the edge.
And they did
And she pushed them.
And they flew.

--Guillaume Apollinaire OR Christopher Logue (There is controversy over who wrote it.) 

It was a good reminder for me to take action and do something that is a little scary every once in awhile. I ask you to do the same. Our fears are often about perception, and have nothing to do with reality. Go to your edge, push yourself off, and see if you can fly.