In Search of High Places

We are the ones who keep looking up. Looking up in search of high places. Because we like to climb. We like to move higher. We like the climb, the effort. And the reward of being at a higher place. To see what the others cannot see. We like to be at a higher place. So we can fall.

We are the ones who keep jumping down from high places. We like the feel of the fall. We like the excitement, the rush. We like the feel of the wind on our faces as the ground jumps up to meet us. We like the jolt it sends our spine as our knees hit the ground. It makes us feel alive - the falling and the fall. And we like to relish the memory that we had the guts to jump. The memory of how it feels to fall. We like it so much that we keep doing it again. We look up again. In search of higher places.

The next one will be higher. The next climb will be tougher. Because we cannot settle for anything less. Why do it unless it's new? Why do it if you've done it before? So we climb higher and higher. And the thrills become wilder and wilder. And the fall becomes riskier and riskier. Until the time comes when we get hurt.

And we stay there on the ground for a bit, picking on our wounds and tapping at our bruises. We do it because we like to relish the pain. The price we have to pay for jumping and falling.

And once we recover, we look up again, searching. For the next best thing. For the next adventure. Because we cannot stay there on the ground. We cannot stay there, with the memory of being high up there still fresh in our minds. We must do it again. There is no other option.

And then one time, we know. One time, the day will come. When we would have climbed the highest that we can climb. When we know that this time, we will not survive the fall. And we linger for a bit there, hanging on the precipice. Thinking back and feeling forward. Knowing that this will be the last. Afraid but happy that we were the ones who had the courage to try. The courage to dream that we can fly.

And we jump. We jump still.

Because we know that once we hit the ground for the last time, that is when we will really fly. That is when you can really escape gravity.

With the fading light comes the gift of flight.