Roller coasters

I Love roller coasters! They invite me to live full out (well, so do all experiences in Life, really)!  In one of the More To Life trainings that I did in Denver, I was talking about the two ways to ride a roller coaster.

A friend of mine came to me afterward and said she was afraid of roller coasters, and I said, "Kewl, let's go to Elitch Gardens and ride one, so you can get rid of that fear."  She said, "OK, when?" We set a date and went.

I asked her to show me how she rode the roller coaster. So with really shaky legs, she got on the roller coaster, and I sat right beside her. As we were making the first ascent, she gripped the bar till her knuckles whitened, hunched her shoulders, closed her eyes tighter and tighter. By the time we started down the the long slide, she was scrunched almost into a ball. By the time it was over, she was worn out.

I asked her if she wanted her energy back. She said yes. We got in line for the roller coaster again. As we were waiting for our turn, we agreed this time she would keep her eyes and mouth open – Wide Open. When we got in the car again, she got another death grip on the bar, and her eyes started closing. I  reminded her of our agreement – encouraged her to exhale .. then to let a sound ride out along with that exhale – she started making a little sound. Before the ride was over, her hands were in the air, her eyes were big and round, and she was screaming like a banshee – as was I! This time we got off the roller coaster laughing like loons. Her eyes were bright, her energy up, she wanted to do it again. And so we did.

I will forever remember my friend as a spiritual warrior winning yet another battle for freedom.

And have you noticed that there are two ways to live life? One way is to shut down and endure it, hoping to avoid hurt, exposure, and other emotional pain – which, by the way, never works anyway. It's like learning to live with a low-grade fever – never feeling well.

Or the other way, which is to be alive to joy, hurt, love, pain, satisfaction, disappointment, etc. It's a roller coaster of emotions and feelings. While it is not always as exciting as a roller coaster, there is that ebb and flow of feeling. It keeps us from turning into robots.