Do You Dare to Jump — Or live an ordinary life?
Taking risks can be scary, but they can also be life changing. All we need is a leap of faith.
Perched at the edge of the world, I stood immobile as the hot afternoon wind licked my ten-year-old back. Looking out over the vastness ahead, it was evident: there was nowhere to go but down.
“Jump stupid,” jeered a long line of slimy guppies, scrambling up the ladder to the twenty-foot tall platform. It was my first time on San Carlos High’s skyscraping diving board, and I was terrified.
Eyes fixed on the smog-filled horizon gently blanketing the San Francisco Bay miles away, I loaded my lungs with air and closed my eyes, praying for a smooth entry (belly flops are never pretty). Then, taking a huge leap of faith, off the plank I stepped. Two seconds later, immersed in bubbles, euphoria wrapped its ecstatic arms around me. I’d conquered a fear, and the result was fantastic. How I wish the rest of my life could have been that easy.
Back in the 1960s, children were raised to have a vision for the life they wanted. Dreams of grandeur were allowed, but there was an underlying expectation that it also comes with a healthy paycheck.
Later, as a budding artist in the 1970s, I sold my paintings on the streets of San Francisco with flowers in my hair and handmade embroidered clothing. While I made good money, it wasn’t enough to sustain my apartment. Though my art was constantly admired as a lovely hobby, I was told to never quit the day job. The life of an artist wasn’t lucrative, and success meant paying bills and acquiring possessions. Consequently, the paints and easel found a new home under my bed and I followed the ordinary and mundane path to financial solvency.
Forty years later as I sit in my comfortable home of thirty-six years, I find the trees that began as whips planted in our yard have now morphed into profound roots. They’re so deep that it would take not only a jackhammer, but the Jaws of Life to move them, and likewise, me. A life of doing what was expected and collecting stuff can do that to a person.
A few years back, my eldest daughter decided to leave her world of fifteen years behind in Los Angeles. An opportunity arose for her soul to evolve to a higher level, and she wanted to grab…
