Of Chances and Choices

(Take the chance while you still have the choice.)

Do you remember when you were little and playing on the playground? There was the slide; you climb and climb and climb for a short quick ride; there was the see-saw; back and forth, back and forth, and you couldn't only get so high; and then there were the swings. You would wait in line forever for the swings, for a chance to be able to get so high. You could lean all the way back and pretend that your toes were scraping that beautiful blue sky while the wind whistled in your ears, whispering beliefs that you could do anything.
Then you learned the trick where you would get a good momentum going and, as your friends cheered you on, you got to a height that was only mildly dangerous and you would jump; just as the swing got to the highest point you would launch yourself off the seat, feet first, arms flailing, scraping at the sky like you had with your sneakers. Of course you would come back down to Earth and land on the wood chips with all bones intact– children are resilient, my mother used to say, their bones bend. You would be fine, completely unharmed; an adrenaline junkie at age 8. It was exhilarating and even if you didn't know it at the time, you had an idea of what invincible meant.

It seems that the older we get, the more we forget about this. Not the invincible part– we all seem to have that down pat; driving too fast, drinking too much, and diving head first into things we know nothing about, throwing caution to the wind along with our morals and values.
It's the part about reaching for the sky that we all seem to have forgotten. This concept is not restricted to playgrounds and childhood playtime. It's about reaching for something, no matter how far out there it is, while we still can. As we get older, we stop taking chances for fear we won't bounce back like we used to, that our bones won't bend as they once did.

Well, go ahead, jump. Yeah, you might break something, but I bet that the wood chips are a lot softer than you remember.