Five Minute Friday: Jump

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.

Here’s how we do it:

1. Write for 5 minutes flat on the prompt “After” with no editing, tweaking or self critiquing.

2. Link back to Lisa-Jo's blog and invite others to join in {you can grab the button code in her blog’s footer}.

3. Go and tell the person who linked up before you what their words meant to you. Every writer longs to feel heard.

OK, are you ready? Give me your best five minutes for the prompt:

JUMP

Go:

I heard the clicking sound of the instructor attaching my harness.  I was single again and at that very moment....wanted to just lay down and die.  I couldn't...and I really wouldn't....but I felt that way.  My life of 23 years had ended....and I am the one who finally did it.  I was on my way back from Tennessee when I saw this sign just outside of Chattanooga that said "Want to Hang glide?"  I found myself leaving the interstate and heading toward the top of the mountain.  I felt myself magnetically drawn into the office as I pulled out my credit card and paid for this "experience of a lifetime."  My heart was pounding   I suddenly needed to use the bathroom.....but it was a little too late for that.  The instructor strapped in behind me and told me to run to the edge of the mountain and jump.  JUMP?  Was he crazy?  I turned a bit and looked him dead in the eye and asked him if he thought I was crazy.  Why would I jump off a perfectly good mountain?   He turned my head toward the edge and told me to give it all I had.  I started to run....and just as I got to the JUMP part....I felt my human brakes kick in.  I stopped within inches of where I was to step off into oblivion.  I sighed....another failure.   I could not even do this right.  The instructor sensing my pain switched places with me and literally drug me off the mountain.  We ran to the edge and continued to run when the edge left beneath our feet.  I had made the Jump.  I closed my eyes tight and prayed that God would be with me until we landed at the foot of the mountain.....then I opened one eye....and experienced God in a whole new way.  I was soaring with the eagles...I had JUMPED.  When I reached the ground and was unharnessed.  I fell to my knees and kissed the earth beneath me.  Life would go on and I would not be afraid to JUMP again.....just not from the side of a mountain.....or airplane.  A calming peace set over me and I knew I was alright.

STOP: