Ziplining and the Dantian

As a gift for 20 years in the ministry (or mother's day -- or both), I embarked on a ziplining adventure in the North Carolina mountains (Navitat Zipline Canopy). I have a moderate fear of heights, but have wanted to try ziplining since I first heard of it. I realized this was a good opportunity to breathe through fear and fully enter the present moment, abandonning control of the outcome.

As we climbed the mountain in four wheelers driven by guides, I breathed in the lush woods about me and found my dantian (the energy center deep in the gut). The presence of thrill and trepidation was evident amongst us in the back seat, intermingling with the ease and excitement of the guides in the front seat. We had been asked in the orientation if anyone had a debilitating fear of heights. I said to myself, well....not debilitating....and welcomed the continuing instruction. So now, I was riding up and up and up, ready to embrace the ride within these magnificent mountains.

The training was simple and the assurance of assistance sound. I trusted the safety measures implicitly. The point was to welcome joy, which can only happen when you feel secure enough to let go. By the third zipline (there were ten), I decided to let my guide know that this was a venture, in part, to face a fear.  By then I was pretty sure that I could do the whole course. My revealing the tentative feelings within was to ease out of isolation, which can be debilitating in itself.

While standing on the platforms, high up in age-old trees, I thought of a retreat leader's urging to center into the dantian and ground myself with earth energy. Though far from the ground, I could feel the grounding within. When my arms became wobbly, again more from fear than logic, I heeded the guides instruction, extended my arms out to encourage the flow of chi, and trusted that the fear could accompany me and ride into joy.

This discipline accompanied me throughout the three hour journey, filled with sights and sounds and laughter that keep me smiling to this day.

Praises for the mountains. Praises for the dantian. Praises for opportunities of joy. It is all rarely fear free. Except in moments, steadily growing.