Yesterday, I had one of the most exhilarating and terrifying experiences in my life. Let me explain: I vehemently detest heights. I don’t do ferris wheels or desire to get close to the edge of any tall place. So I’m not quite sure what I was thinking when I signed up to go Arbre en Arbre (tree to tree). When we got to Le Relais centre de ski resort, I was super excited/nervous to try my hand at the high ropes course, even though J’ai peur des hauteurs (I’m scared of heights).

As I was climbing up the ladder and onto the platform, the adrenaline started to rush in my bloodstream. I started to dread that first footstep out onto a tight wire, and as if to make it more difficult, the wind started to pick up, swinging the rope I stood on back and forth. Eventually, I coaxed myself out onto the first level and continued to make my way through the obstacles. Alexis (below), made the course seem easy as she was a little less queazy about heights!

A big part of me wanted to give up, but if you know me personally, you know that I’m as tenacious as a mule. Once I commit to something, I see it through, and personally feel like one should to something every day that is out of one’s “comfort zone.” Surely, this was way out of my comfort zone!!! I spent a good portion alternating between making awful animalistic howls of terror, muttering “Mon Dieu” under my breath, and singing Ani DiFranco’s “Buildings and Bridges” to keep myself calm. 

As Ani writes, 

Buildings and bridges

Are made to bend in the wind

To withstand the world,

That’s what it takes

All that steel and stone

Are no match for the air, my friend

What doesn’t bend breaks

What doesn’t bend breaks

The ropes course took about 3 1/2 hours to complete. Indeed, I didn’t think I’d learn any life lessons swinging from tree to tree, but life is surprising that way. It was invigorating, visceral, and very very frightening in ways that were eerily similar to being deposited into a foreign place and forced to speak a foreign language. What doesn’t bend… going abroad is an exercise in gaining that sort of flexibility.  

I’m glad that I had the chance to step out of my safety zone, to take a chance of falling.  I’m proud to say that I didn’t fall once, even though the terror of falling even a little gripped hold of me for most of the course. However, it was a great feeling to have had to have relied on my balance and strength to get me through it. 

Still, twas the best fun I never want to have again.

 

Location: Le Relais centre de ski: Lac-Beauport, Québec