What I learned at Camp #5 - Take a Leap of Faith

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 Riding the Zip Line at Camp Newman


Number five: take a leap of faith
While at camp this year Isaac and I got to try the zip line. A zip line is a long suspended cable that runs downhill—you put on a harness, climb to the top of a tower, and get clipped on to the line with a D-ring and a roller. You slide to the bottom of the hill, suspended in the air by the cable, cruising along at about 40 miles per hour, soaring over the trees, and when you get to the tower on the other side, someone lowers you to the ground on your rope.
It was lots of fun, but to get started you literally have to take a leap of faith. From the top of the tower you stand on a little platform and you have to jump off. You just jump and let the rope do the work. When it was my turn to hide my nerves at being up that high I asked lots of questions: What if I could not slow down when braking? How should I hold my hands? How hard do I tap the cable to slow down? Finally Tal, the young and tattooed Israeli woman who runs the zip line, yelled up to me, “Stop thinking and just jump!” I did, and the ride was great. Sometimes we need to just let go—to make the leap and have faith that we will enjoy the ride and land safely. 

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