….and then she jumped
I learned one of life’s greatest lessons from a man named “Cave Man” while surfing off the coast of San Diego. He noticed me watching him curiously while washing the sand off my board and approached me, beer in one hand, cigarette in the other. His shirt was off and his skin was like leather. He introduced himself and asked me the question that my soul has asked me many times, “wanna try it?”. My curiosity had been directed towards the rope that was tied between two trees, a make-shift tight rope created by a man who had seen more in his lifetime than I could ever dream of. My answer was of course “no”. As loud as my soul shouted yes, my head always seemed to shout louder. The answer of my friend and companion that day was, as it usually is, “sure why not?”.
Afer a few minutes of watching her “learn the ropes”, so to speak, my soul cried out once more and this time I listened. Wobbling uncontrollably, I put one foot on the rope and grasped the shoulder of my new friend Cave Man. He put his cigarette to his chapped lips and spoke these words to me…”you have to put all your weight, everything you have, on one foot before you can take the next step”. A leather skinned man, who smelled of smoke and booze, taught me one of the most essential lessons in life that day. If you aren’t fully grounded in the present before you take the next step into the future, you’ll always be a little wobbly.
Thank you Cave Man. 
