Still, aside from a trip to California, I’ve not travelled much this year. And, while I do enjoy time with friends, and most especially with my daughter, I have few “haunts” or “goto” places. And so, I think that my best “place” is simply wherever I am when I’m happy and that means wherever I am with friends or family.

This can be floating on a river in a kayak with my friends on a hot summer day.

It can be sitting in my cubicle at work solving a particularly sticky programming problem.

It can be sitting inside the Nashville Arena watching the Nashville Predators winning a hockey game, unless they’re playing my favorite team: the Anaheim Ducks, in which case I am only happy if the Ducks win.

It can be sitting in an In-N-Out Burger joint enjoying a double/double and fries with my daughter.

It can be hanging out with co-workers at a local eatery, enjoying good company, good conversation and good live music.

It can be watching Cowboy Mouth play at the Exit/In.

For me, the “best place” is mostly a metaphor for where I can hang out with my friends or family or even just enjoying my surroundings alone.

For me, the hands down winner for this topic was the day I conquered my fear of jumping off of something high by swinging on a rope swing over the Duck River during a kayaking trip with friends. Actually, I covered this exact topic back in July, shortly after the experience.

You see, I have always had a fear of heights and a fear of jumping off of even relatively low places.  I can’t place where these fears came from, but they do exist and have caused me, at various times, to avoid certain activities or going certain places.  For instance, I was in a tour of the World Trade Center many years back and the observation deck in the one tower had movie theather style seats in rows right up against the glass where you could just sit and look out over Manhatten in all directions.  Now, I could look out the windows, but I couldn’t get close to the seats.  Oddly, however, I can sit next to the window on an airplane and look down at the ground as we fly along at 35,000 feet with no problems.

Anyhow, back to the rope swing.  The tree on which the rope was affixed was laying over on it’s side.  The main trunk of the tree was over a foot thick out over the river and two feet thick near the bank where the tree had been standing in the past.  One of it’s main branches was sticking up at a high angle, thus making a prefect spot from which to attach the rope.  And, as luck would have it, the depth of the river where the tree lay jutting over the river was such that we could swim and not touch bottom if we were treading water.  Plenty deep enough to land in without worry of striking the bottom, etc.

Now, on this trip, there were six of us.  It was a warm summer day and we had stopped to have lunch and enjoy the cool water.  Now, as we continued on the “float” we came upon this tree and the rather thick rope which had been left attached to the tree for anyone who happened to pass.  Keith, our fearless leader, decided he was going to try the swing.  And, sure enough, he sailed out over the river before letting go of the rope and basically cannon-balling into the river.  This prompted my friends Joe and David to attempt the swing along with one of the two ladies on the trip – Julia.  They all had fine form and landed with grand splashes in the river.

It looked like a LOT of fun so I decided that I must try this, even as the fear of leaping off and falling all started to knot up my stomach.  But, having just recent read a blog post about facing your fears, which I mentioned yesterday in fact, I knew I HAD to try and face these fears and try the swing anyway.  As Leo said, “Feel the fear, and do it anyway!”  And so, I clambered out of my kayak and onto the fallen tree trunk and made my way out to where the rope hung down to the water.  And, standing there, holding the rope and fighting an internal battle of wills (one voice screaming “DON’T DO IT” and the other voice screaming “JUST DO IT”) and with plenty of “encouragement” from my friends, I finally took the plunge and leapt off the tree trunk.  It wasn’t graceful or pretty.  It was, more or less, just a semi controlled fall into the river, but for me a triumph!  I don’t know if you can see this, since it is posted on Facebook, but my friend Julia even captured my triumph on video.  I even tried it a second time and managed to improve my form ever so slightly.  All in all, it was an exhilarating experience and something I highly recommend to anyone.  When confronted with a rope swing, the best course of action is to jump.

What I figured out, was that leaps of faith are often necessary if you ever want to grow as a person.  Sure, you can get hurt, but staying safe will always ensure that you won’t achieve any real growth.  Its only when we step out on a limb and test how far we can go that we discover that we can go a LOT farther than we ever thought possible.

The Harpeth River in the Early Fall

You see, the kind of kayaking we do is more or less just floating with just a bare minimum of extra effort.  This isn’t white-water kayaking where you wear a “skirt” that seals you into the kayak so that water can’t get into the kayak.  This is simply floating along with the current and using the paddle to keep you headed more or less straight.  Meanwhile, you glide almost silently along, basking in the summer heat and sunshine and meandering past wildlife of all sorts.

And, while I am with friends, we usually end up  strung out along the river, near enough so that  should we require assistance, all is well, but far enough apart that we can be alone with our thoughts.  This leads to the moments of peace I have come to cherish on these excursions.  I float along, the wind softly rustling the leaves in the trees, the flies, dragonflies and other winged creatures buzzing around and various other critters chattering and clattering around me.  The sun invariably shines down, bathing me in the warmth.  Each breath fills my nostrils with the scents of the river: trees, grass, water.  Aside from the sounds just described, it’s quiet.  No engines or traffic noise.  No sounds of modern living.  Its just me and nature.

 I often lean back and close my eyes.  My mind takes me back to the days of the indians or the great explorers.  I imagine what it would be like back then, before ipods and fast food and cars and the internet.  I find myself wishing that I could make these moments last forever.

When we paddled up to the swing, our fearless “leader”, Keith declared that he was taking a turn and was urging us all to join him.  This was something I’ve always been afraid to do as I’m rather afraid of heights and jumping/falling any real distance.  But, with the urging of the group and seeing how much fun Keith, Joe, Julia and David had had, I decided to give it a try.  So, I managed to climb out of my kayak between the trunk and a separate tree stump that made a sort of “dock” and climb up onto the trunk and began making my way up the trunk to where the rope swing waited.

David passed the rope up to me and I began to position myself for the leap and swing all the while feeling my heart pounding and the fear of jumping and falling crashing around in my head.  This, of course, was being drowned out by the chorus of “go for it” and “jump” and “one, two, three… GO!” shouts of encouragement from my friends.  So, after several agonizing seconds I went for it and jumped.  And promptly swung down and splash into the water, entirely missing the “swing” action but nonetheless totally enjoying the experience!

So, I did it again, only this time, managed to jump a little higher and hold on a little better so that I didn’t hit the water as soon, but I still failed to “swing and fall” but rather more “jumped and fell with the control of the rope”.
Now, you might be asking, whats the big deal?  Well, I’ll tell ya.  A year ago, this then 43 year old man, probably wouldn’t have taken the challenge.  Why? Because of the fears I mentioned before.  But, in the ensuing months, I’ve started to read up on finding ways to conquer my fears and to inspire me to take “leaps of faith”.  I read a blog by Leo Babauta and he posted an article that talks about overcoming your fears and doing things that you would normally not do because of the fears.  In this article he says,

“3. Feel the fear. You’ve acknowledged it, but you’re still afraid of it. You’re reluctant to even have this fear, perhaps even embarrassed about it. Well, no more. Recognize that you’re not alone, that we ALL have these fears, that we all think we might not be good enough. Yes, even the amazing Barack, the amazing Jessica Alba, the amazing Al Pacino. They have the same fears as you do. I sure do. Repeat after me: there’s nothing wrong with having this fear. Now allow yourself to feel it. Experience it fully. Bask in this fear. It isn’t as bad as you think. It’s a part of you, but it doesn’t control you. From djbarker on Twitter: “Feel the fear & do it anyway.”

This was powerful stuff to me several months ago, and it still is. In fact, I believe it was rattling around in my head as I stood on that trunk holding the rope and wondering if I could take the leap. I honestly believe it helped me conquer the fear of falling and leaping and just doing it.

So, in a world of rope swings, I urge you all to feel the fear and do it anyway and grab onto the rope and jump. The worst that could happen is you fall into the water and get wet, which is exactly where you’re headed if you succeed since I doubt you can hold onto the rope forever.

Several of us were in kayaks and the families were in canoes. We floated/paddled for about four hours with a couple of breaks including a rope swing and a lunch break. I’d never tried a rope swing but it was a lot of fun even though I suck at it.

I am really looking forward to when Stephis here so she can enjoy it too.