It wasn't on my bucket list - but it probably should have been!
When my friend Jill (or as she is otherwise known - "The amazing, awesome and adventurous Jill Fanuzzi!") casually mentioned a few months ago that she was going to go trapezing as one of her "bucket list" items, I enthusiastically (and perhaps rashly) offered to accompany her. As we approached the New York City Trapeze School from Houston St., we gazed up at the apparatus, sitting atop a 3-story building over West St., the traffic whizzing by, the platform another 23 feet up above the roof, the under-construction Freedom Tower in evidence before us, and excitedly made our way up to "class."
A mere 10 minutes of instruction later, I was climbing the ladder, strapping on the harness (with the lovely Amelia's help), grabbing the trapeze bar, and waiting for the call of "Ready! Hep!" from the spotter, Hal, below. And so...I jumped. And swung. And hung down from my knees. And flew.
Minutes later it was Jill's turn and she fearlessly, with purpose and grace (yeah, she doesn't think so, but she sure did look graceful), performed the same daring feat. Then did it again.
We learned to soar and hang by our knees, to do a somersault dismount, to let go and be caught by James, he of the beautiful blue eyes. Our adrenaline pushed us up that ladder again and again. Our hands got chalky and raw, our legs got shaky and rubbery, the backs of our knees got bruised, we used muscles we didn't even know we had, we smiled widely each time we curled ourselves out of the safety net after a successful dismount. And when it was all over, we looked at the pictures of ourselves flying and we knew we had done a good thing for our bodies and for our souls.
It is a week later and I still think of the powerful impact this simple adventure has had on me. I had a follow up appointment with my jaw surgeon today and couldn't resist showing him the pictures of what I can do just 3 years after that incredible surgery (yeah, he's probably thinking "Damn, I'm good!"). I'll show the same pictures to my oncologist tomorrow, when I have another routine follow-up visit with him. To show that I'm not just living - I'm LIVING.
There is a lot of cool stuff that's happened in the past few weeks (Emily's 23rd birthday, Addison's 1st birthday - did it really go that fast? - a mini-vacation with Warren to Cooperstown) and more to come (my first NASCAR race in New Hampshire, visiting Stephane, the Lou Avenue Block Party). There have been some ups and downs (um, no pun intended there) too during this time, but overall, in my heart - I'm still flying.
Blessings and Love to All.
