Lately I’ve been participating in Five Minute Fridays, a blog link up hosted by Lisa Jo Baker. She gives a word prompt to inspire you and you write, unedited (mostly) for five minutes. You can read other posts at www.lisajobaker.com . Here are the details:
On Fridays around these parts we like to write. Not for comments or traffic or anyone else’s agenda. But for pure love of the written word. For joy at the sound of syllables, sentences and paragraphs all strung together by the voice of the speaker.
We love to just write without worrying if it’s just right or not. For five minutes flat.
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Feel the tension build in your legs then s-p-r-ING you up and out.
Feel the wind rush past your ears.
Feel the absence of weight and worry.
There is no fear, no moment but this.
Why can’t we abandon ourselves to leap this way? To jump into the waiting arms of our father, who treads water just past the end of the diving board.
We are paralyzed at the edge of the cliff, count ourselves down over and over before we almost lose our balance and retreat to safety.
What if we would let ourselves fall? What would we risk? A physical injury? Humilation? Failure? Or might we find flight? If we dared to set aside our excuses and busybody schedules and made space for the dream, could we discover we have wings?
Would it be a state of suspended animation if our wings didn’t unfurl immediately?
Would we hang in midair like an osprey who hovers over her watery prey? Or would we become comical, like Wile E. Coyote, legs spinning but getting nowhere?
Even if we crashed and burned, belly-flopped, tanked, yard sale or did a face-plant, I like to think the moment of flight and freedom would be worth it.
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Question: have you ever failed horribly? What risks have you taken lately?
Free-falling! The sound of it leaves me giddy and terrified all at once. I think if we did it, it would be more like the scary of a fun roller-coaster…knuckles white until it’s over and we scream, “Let’s go again!”.
It is so true that something can be terrifying and fantastic fun all at the same time. “Let’s go again!”
loved this. my past year has been my “belly-flop” and now i’m treading water in the very deep end. yet, i have learned more about myself in the past year that i would have if i had not jumped…
Thank you so much for reading. Those belly flops can knock the wind out of you, can’t they? You sound like you’ve had a hard year, but I think it’s great you can look back and see things you’ve discovered in the midst of difficulty. Not everyone has that ability. Hang in there.
This has a great poetry feel in the beginning. It makes me want to: Go, Jump, & Do! Let’s follow those dreams and jump right in. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you found Five Minute Friday to be a worthwhile use of time. I enjoyed reading your post as well.
Exactly. Time to regain some of that childlike faith and JUMP! 🙂 Very poetic, Nita, great imagery. Loved it.
Yes, well worth it.
I was kind of the same track today. Love your post.
Laura Hedgecock
http://www.TreasureChestofMemories.com
http://www.Twitter.com/LauraLHedgecock