Tandem Jumping

Recently I took my cousins sky-diving. We live in an area which is very near to countryside. Due to that, we have at least 3 sky-diving centers within an hour's drive. So we drove up one sunny morning into the beautiful countryside, winding along vast open fields and little villages. We reached the sky-diving center, which looked more like a family business. There was a lot of sky-diving equipment in one room, and a lot of mobile homes behind the hangar.

The instructor made us go through the paperwork where we basically absolve them of all responsibilities. A boring video followed explaining how exciting yet dangerous this sport is. Then, we got really smart looking jumpsuits to wear & take pictures in. Finally, we went outside looking for our airplane which would take us up to 10000 feet. We heard loud whirring sounds from behind the hangar, stirring up excitement. But when the airplane came into our view, apprehension took over the excitement. The plane was only slightly bigger than a minivan, and the pilot was an old gentleman wearing just an undervest & flappy shorts. My cousins and I looked at each other, unsure of whether to hand over our lives to this situation.

Hope overcame our apprehension, and my sister mustered courage to go first. She crept up on the floor of the one-seater plane where the only seat was occupied by the vested pilot. She was made to sit on the floor under the flight control panel. The instructor holed up behind her, trying to make her enjoy the upcoming fun. Revving up the engines, the pilot started taxiing into the fields. With a very short run-up, the plane was up in the air. It kept gaining height as it flew in circles over our heads. Reaching about 10000 ft where the plane looked like a small speck in the sky, they made the free-fall jump. What was about 40 seconds to us on the ground, felt like eternity to my sky-diving cousin. Pretty soon, the parachute opened up and they sailed over the winds for about 6 to 8 minutes before landing right in front of the hangar.

She was almost deaf when she walked up to us. The wind had knocked out her ears. My brother started suiting up for his jump while she recovered. After about 10 minutes, when she finally got some of her hearing back, I asked her, "were you scared when you jumped?" Her reply was almost music to my ears. "I was not afraid because he was with me", she replied. Wow! She was not scared in her 10000 ft jump into the open sky, just because the instructor was with her all the time. She was not alone up in the sky... someone was with her in tandem.

I looked up 'tandem' in the dictionary, and it said: "having two things arranged one in front of the other". I never knew the beauty of this magnanimous word before that epic moment. Tandem! Yes... I am not alone. I do not feel afraid when I am not alone. I have someone with me in tandem... always! He is with me and since He has arranged Himself behind me, I do not see Him. Yet He is the power behind every thought and deed of mine.

I can enjoy the jump only if I know that I am tethered to Him. I do not have the parachute, He does... and I am tied to him. That's how I can enjoy tandem-jumping. That singular thought absolves me of all my worries. I do not have to worry about which strings to pull. He does that for me, while I enjoy the treasures that lie yonder. All I need is complete, unwavering faith in Him. That is all I need from my side. Everything else is provided to me by Him - the jumpsuit, the harness, goggles, earplugs, the airplane, the parachute, even the instructions, and most of all: His own companionship... all I need to do is hold His hand, and JUMP!

Have a Nice Day

Have a nice day!

Do we not hear this so often? Every time our eyes meet someone else's on the road, in our office, at the grocery store or just about anywhere... We instinctively go "How are you doing?" replied with an equally mechanical "Good! How are you?" while our feet continue on their path.

Just in case, we do stop to have a conversation with a familiar face, we end it with a 'Have a nice day!" and "You too!". Day in & day out, we exchange these pleasantries, majorly without our conscious brains involved. Today however, I got jolted by an answer, which on the face seemed pretty similar and routine, but it was different. When I walked away from someone at the water-cooler with a 'Have a nice day!", he replied with a "You do the same!". I almost stopped... not because it was an answer other than the regular, but because it had a different connotation. Or so I felt!

'Have a nice day' has a pretty passive undertone to it... like, I get to have what the day gives me. But the verb in "you do the same" is a lot more direct and action-oriented. It tells me that I can do something about it. I do not need to meekly accept whatever treatment the day metes out to me. This thought is very enabling and energizing.

But what can I do? Do I have the power to create my own day? Can I really make it nice even when it is not... which it usually is? There is so much happening in and around me, and hardly is there a thing which is in my control. How can I do something about my day when I am not able to choose what happens to me and my world? How can I have a nice day?

It is true. There is so much in the world around me that I cannot change to my liking. If there is snow, then there is snow, and I have to clean it off my car & my driveway. If it rains then it rains, and I have to walk through puddles of dirty water. If there's traffic and I am stuck, then I am stuck. If I have a mean boss or warmongering colleagues then that's the way it is. If business is slow, then it's slow. Life is constantly sending things our way, and so many of them aren't things that we like.

So, the question still persists... how do I make my day nice? The answer lies in a combination of physics and meta-physics. Sir Newton proclaimed in his 3rd law that 'every action has an equal & opposite reaction'. While it may not be true for all of physics, this postulate holds the key to my problem. It is the reaction that matters. What happens is beyond my control, but how I react to it, is always in my control. I can choose to react in the way I want. I can either give an 'equal & opposite' reaction or do it a bit differently. The best way to make our day nice, is to react gracefully. Grace, I would say, is the beauty of life. It is grace that makes a dance beautiful. It is grace that makes speech beautiful. It is grace that makes giving beautiful. Grace added to anything makes the latter beautiful. So why not my reaction, and why not my day?

Let life throw anything at me, I will catch it gracefully. Let life ask me questions, I will answer gracefully. Let life line up challenges my way, I will live upto them gracefully. Let life even send me joys, and I will enjoy them gracefully. It is the reaction that makes all the difference. I can choose to have a nice day irrespective of what lies around the corner, just by spicing up my reactions with a little bit of grace. The spicier, the tastier!

And where do I get this grace from? From my Father. Just pick some from the constant showering of His unending grace.You will never run out of it.

So the next time someone gives you a "Have a nice day", say "I am, and you do too!"

Cheers!