you never can begin to live until you dare to die...

Monday, May 30, 2011

Katherine Sophia: Flying

Annnd I'm still aggregating, bringing to you yet another post from Katherine Sophia, this one from November of 2010, actually. Read the original post and watch the videos she posted with it on her blog.
"It was the week before my flight test...
I had studied harder for that than for any other test in my life.


Now I was flying, doing a practice flight with another instructor to prepare for the actual test.
I'd done landings, stalls, radio towers, steep turns... It had taken hours.


Suddenly the instructor turned to me (hot-dog dare-devil that he was, the kind of guy who when you ask "What happens if the door broke and opened while you were flying?" looks and you and opens the door when you're 2,000 feet off the ground).
"Sometimes you get to this point and you forget why you're doing all this. You want to do something fun?"


I did.


And before I knew it, I was upside down and the world was overhead. We spun around and around until I was dizzy, and then he pulled us out of the spin. Then we were flying through the frozen river valley, only inches above the ice... Ice and snow were everywhere... it was like a different world.

It was the most amazing flight of my life.

But do know what annoyed me?
The entire time I felt like I was watching a movie.
Like I was at the Omni-Theatre, watching Magic of Flight or something.
I had to keep telling myself that no, this was really happening.
I was actually hurtling through the air just above the ice, spinning through the air, actually living what I was seeing and feeling.

Just thinking about this lately... and about one of my favorite quotes -

"Have you ever felt that there was something going on in life that not everyone was aware of?...As though there’s a story going on that everyone is a part of, but not everybody knows about—a sort of drama, a battle between what’s peripheral and what’s really important. As though the people you meet aren’t just their plain, prosaic selves, but are actually princes and princesses, gods and goddesses, fairies, gypsies, shepherds, all sorts of fantastic creatures who’ve chosen to hide their real shape...Or have forgotten who they really are.
Have you ever thought that?"
~The Shadow of the Bear




And I wonder... how many times do we forget about what is real? How often are we aware of the battle going on all around us, of the true story that is being written, of the reality underlying the happenings of our life?
Are we so caught up in the "movies" being played in our life, in the drama, in the fun, in the excitement of what we like and spend time doing, that when reality happens, when God brings us directly into the thick of the fight and gives us a glimpse of the glory beyond, we don't even recognize it?


Instead of seeing the day-to-day things as an inkling of far greater and more wonderful things, we compare those greater things to what is only a faded picture of them. Instead of experiencing the actual moment God places us in, we miss out because we have experienced too many moments faking what it is He wants for us.


We can't live our lives through others' battles and triumphs. We can't get what He wants for us to have by listening to others tell about their quiet times or their witnessing experiences. We have to go live the life He has for us, knowing and experiencing Him, knowing that the "unseen" is true reality.
I want to live in that reality."


Stay dangerous,

Gray

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