Haggis For One
This week’s prompt… Sky Diving. You have 15 minutes–go!
The year I turned 50, I took 50 items off my bucket list. It seems an easy thing to do, find 50 new experiences to have in a year. It may not be as simple as that.
As with many conundrums, I turned to my friends on Facebook and in the flesh to pitch ideas of things I could do for my monumental year. Things like learning to knit, learning to juggle, and trying goat yoga were popular with the group. Several, who I can only barely call friends at this point, suggested I try haggis or sky diving. I’m sorry haggis, it is not personal, but it is not going to happen and the friends that wanted me subjected to its intestine-y delight have been unceremoniously removed from my Christmas list.
Sky diving though I was not entirely sure I didn’t want to do so I went to the indoor iFly skydiving centre with some friends and some clarity. We did have the time of our lives and I learned something that day I didn’t expect to learn. I am capable of giving up control and allowing something else to guide the ship—in this case, the wind. I learned something else that day too. I’d had enough. Indoor flying with a cushy floor only a few feet away was my idea of sky diving.
It was a few weeks ago that our 15-year-old son announced that for his 16th birthday he wanted to go skydiving. My heart sank like a 50-year-old woman without a parachute. The idea that my baby would throw himself willingly out of an airplane, brought me crashing, metaphorically, to the ground and the fall wasn’t as cushy as I had imagined.
But, I remembered the lesson I learned that day once my heart rate returned. I am capable of giving up control and allowing something else to guide the ship. This ship just so happened to be a 6 foot tall, strong-willed, blue-eyed child. He had been flying with my wind for his whole life and wanted to break free of my slipstream to forge his own path to happiness. I need to be braver than a forkful of haggis with no mustard. He is in control now. I can be his colourful canopy watching him float throughout his life. Sometimes I will help catch his fall, sometimes I will have to watch him eat haggis on his own.
Fifteen Minute Fridays are stories based on writing prompts that I penned in the 15 minutes afforded to me at my weekly writer’s group. They are unedited (except spelling) and are based on one word/phrase. The fifteen minutes includes thinking about your idea, writing it down, and a quick edit if you have time. When we are done our 15-minute writing exercise, we share our stories with everyone in the room. If you played along, please share. If you read my words, please be kind.
Photo by Arnaud Mesureur on Unsplash
Most of your 50 adventures still leave me breathless. I’m sorry to say, I was born ‘gutless’ (so to speak) and in awe of you. But it’s your genes that you passed along to your son so, you know, you 2.0. I feel sorrier for your Mother who not only had to witness you doing all your scary stuff, but now has to watch again as your son imitates those experiences. Hope he has fun! (Couldn’t you take him to the indoor place first and see if he even likes it?)
He is going to the indoor place first… maybe he’ll hate it and we won’t have to watch the real deal.
Kristine,
Sounds like a helluva lot of fun to me.Also, life’s too short to eat intestines! You wrote this in 15 minutes? Wow! I’m impressed. Mona
M.L. James recently posted…To Every Season
Mona, thanks for being impressed (note that I don’t share the crappy ones I write in those 15-minute sessions. The one on ‘The Fragility of Life’ was a stinker and will forever be a reminder that practice, and a good edit, make perfect–or as close as one can get.)
OMG this one scared me.
sorry… it scares me too.
Never done either one. Would love to. Maybe one day. Hate to tell you but I don’t think he’ll hate it.
Arionis recently posted…The Amazing Big Survivor
I agree. I think he’ll love it which is the most terrifying thought of all.
A friend of my mother-in-law decided to try sky diving for the first time on his 80th birthday. He enjoyed it so much he did it again on his 81st birthday and, I think, on a couple of birthdays after that.
Your son has the opportunity and the desire to start early, and I hope he also has a great time.
I’m with you on the haggis, too. It was Mike Myers who said, “I believe most Scottish food was based on a dare.”
That is a great quote! Scottish shortbread the notable exception.