DAY 4+

Courage is a muscle that can only be strengthened by doing something that is scary. 

That was my mantra today as I woke up knowing I was going to be hurling my body through the sky strapped to a glorified kite. I had a feeling that I would love soaring like an eagle, but the thought of leaping off a cliff 1300 feet in the air was pretty scary. The entire morning, I had anxious butterflies as I tried to get a few important things done before my 11am reservation to fly.

When I showed up, there was one other woman who was also hang gliding for the first time. She was accompanied by a woman who was a 20+ year veteran of hang gliding. In fact, she had moved to this area 20 years ago specifically because the hang gliding was so great here. She gave me a ride to the take-off and landing area, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Today was a perfect day to fly. The sun was out, no rain, a few scattered clouds and low wind. It was a little colder than it's been all week, but I dressed warmly enough. After I checked in, I found out that they don't usually launch a tandem hang glider from the ramp on top of the mountain, due to the varying wind direction. Instead, I would travel to the landing strip at the bottom of the mountain, where we would be towed by a small plane up to 2000 ft. Once high enough, the plane would disconnect and we'd hang glide back down. That discovery immediately put me at ease. It's far less scary to start on the ground and fly up than it is to take that leap of faith off the mountain. So perhaps today was just a general warm-up for my courage muscle.

By noon local time, I was strapping into my harness and learning my way around the hang-glider. At this stage, all I really needed to know was how to hang on. And even that wasn't so crucial as I was strapped in to both the hang glider itself and the pilot. It felt like most of what he was telling me was just to put me at ease. And before I knew it, we were taking off and heading straight up into the sky. While my body felt warm, my face was feeling the cold sting of the air as we ascended into the great blue. As we circled higher and higher I was feeling pretty at ease with the whole thing - not really worried at all. The moment we disconnected, we hung in the air for a few seconds, enjoying the quiet as the plane sped off ahead, floating on the air. It was peaceful. And then the pilot started diving and looping us around like we were on a paper airplane. The feeling of falling forward - he described it like being on a roller coaster - but it was without tracks, or rails, or an actual roller coaster and we were 2000 feet in the air! That was when I started to feel the rush of adrenaline, the fragility of my life, the fine line between living and dying.

My favorite experience was when we were just floating and gliding and looking down at the mountain, the farms and houses below. I think I even saw the house where we're staying this week. Everything was so beautiful. The woman who had given me a ride down to the landing strip was like a favorite character in a novel. She had the glow of a woman who lived a life of adventure, with wise and kind eyes. She talked about flights she'd taken for over an hour, staying up as long as possible, and finding herself in a town 60 miles away and needing to find a ride back home.

After my flight, I spent a quiet afternoon at the house and welcomed more family in to visit. We had a delicious early dinner at the Canyon Grill and after dinner drinks and chocolate back at the house. It's almost 10:30 and just about everyone is already in bed. After the day I've had, I have no need to go out and drink and shout Happy New Years at people. I've had the most perfect day to end a really fantastic year.

2015 was a year of uncertainty, change, pleasant surprises and making new commitments. I joined a church, traveled a lot and learned even more. I started new projects, read some great books and found more ways to slow down and connect more fully with my kids, my family and friends. As I look ahead to 2016, I know that I've already begun preparing myself in large part due to keeping this blog. And so, I have no list of resolutions beyond the thoughts I've published here over the last 3 and a half weeks. I go to sleep tonight to dream of the new heights that I can reach for now that I've flexed my courage muscle a little bit more today.

Thank you for reading and Happy New Year to you!
goodnight. ~k