Monday, July 28, 2025

Now, Now. Don't Go Jumping Off a Cliff.

About ten years ago, a guy named Dean Potter and a friend, Graham Hunt, put on their wingsuits and jumped off a cliff. The wingsuits enabled them to soar in flying squirrel fashion. Potter, age forty-three, and Hunt, twenty-nine, were experienced BASE jumpers. The acronym stands for Building, Antenna, Span, and Earth, the locations jumpers jump from. 

Both Potter and Hunt were expert jumpers, but Potter broke the record in 2009 for the longest BASE jump, at two minutes and fifty seconds, after jumping from Eiger North Face in Switzerland. By accomplishing this feat, he earned the title of Adventurer of the Year by National Geographic magazine. 

Friday, June 20, 2025

Saturday, September 14, 2024

Surviving the storms of life

 


    I found an old bucket in the woods and planted a mum in it. Over the years, the roots of this plant have been buried under snow, frozen in subzero temperatures, covered with ice and pummelled with rain. Yet, every spring, I see bits of green peeking through the soil, and it grows and thrives. 

    Last year it was leggy and about four-feet tall but still pretty and loaded with yellow blooms. This year, my beloved gave it some attention by pinching it back, and it is more beautiful than ever. 

    This flower is resilient; it perseveres; it survives every storm, no matter how severe, and comes out smelling like a mum. I want to be like this flower. I want to survive the storms, and after they pass over, I want to bloom again. I am not quite there yet, but maybe I will be, someday.


Now, Now. Don't Go Jumping Off a Cliff.

About ten years ago, a guy named Dean Potter and a friend, Graham Hunt, put on their wingsuits and jumped off a cliff. The wingsuits enabled...