Last night, my son, his friend and I went to an amusement park. Admittedly, all day, I was not anticipating the heat, the lines and the noise with the onset of a summer, heat-dehydrated headache. But he was so excited and that made the effort seem effortless. And as it would turn out, you know what? I had a blast. The night went from ordinary to extraordinary in one simple affirmation. It will be a moment I will never forget for many reasons. (This one’s for you, Con.)
We visit this park often as we are lucky enough to have season passes. Usually we head up there for a couple of hours, ride a few of our standard “easy rides”, nothing too crazy, nothing too fast, nothing new. But last night was different. Maybe it was being with this one friend, maybe it was being with mom, maybe it was the moon, or maybe my son grew up a little last night. Whatever the reason, today, he’s "got his groove on." Direct quote.
Just after entering the park, in easy agreement, we decided to go left. We always go right. Left is scary, right is safe. But left it was and we headed toward the big roller coasters. Perfect, no line! So there we were waiting for the roller coaster to pull up. My son had automatically moved into the lane to sit next to his friend. I would ride behind them (of course) by myself. Then as the coaster pulled up, Connor calmly and confidently moved over to my lane, telling his friend, “I’m riding with my mom.” Friend replies, “cool” and we move to our seats. (Good kid, nice friend!) Now Connor at this point is pumped but a little nervous. He has never been on a really “big time” roller coaster before and I’m trying to down play it for the moment. We strap in and he’s excited, but I see on his face, he’s a little scared too. He tells me, “You know, I’m a little nervous.” And this is how it goes…
“I know buddy. It’ll be okay. I‘m proud of you.”
He gives me a grin and no sooner, we jerk forward, round a corner and start the slow, ticking assent. Up we go, for Connor we go into the total unknown. Just before the crest, just before all speed and craziness break loose, I look at Connor looking down and looking scared and I say,
“Just look straight ahead. Don’t look down. You’ll be great.”
Then, tipping over the top, unleashed, we go! We jerk, we soar, we jerk some more. This is fast and this is fun! We squish to the left and he bumps his elbow on the right. We’re laughing together. We are loving it. I am loving watching my son. I am so proud. This is a moment. As we come to a ticking halt and creep forward to end the ride, Connor is grinning ear to ear, totally happy with himself. Exhilarated.
“So, what’d you think?”, I ask. To my surprise, he replied,
“You were right Mom. I just looked straight ahead and it was awesome!“
Who’d a thought? Something simple and yet profound and I loved him to pieces at that moment. Later, replaying the scene in my mind before sleep, I thought about how he’s growing and changing and how I saw it clearly this night. I thought about being in the moment and my joy as a mom and how much much much I love him.
Then I thought about life and roller coaster rides. Ups, downs, curves ahead we don’t anticipate. We ride high, we ride low, get squished, maybe hurt, we go beyond our comfort zone, we speed forward, we jerk back, we get scared, we laugh, we soar and we fly.
Then I thought about those simple words that made a big difference to Connor‘s ride.
“Don’t look down, just look straight ahead.“ I thought, don’t look down, don’t succumb to fear and the fear of the unknown. Don't see how far down it is, but how high you are. Look straight ahead and look up. Look to the hope, trust, feel the exhilaration, anticipate the flight.
Hold on tight and fly too.
And all this with someone beside you.
Someone who loves you.
Then I thought of Jesus and I drifted off to sleep.
We visit this park often as we are lucky enough to have season passes. Usually we head up there for a couple of hours, ride a few of our standard “easy rides”, nothing too crazy, nothing too fast, nothing new. But last night was different. Maybe it was being with this one friend, maybe it was being with mom, maybe it was the moon, or maybe my son grew up a little last night. Whatever the reason, today, he’s "got his groove on." Direct quote.
Just after entering the park, in easy agreement, we decided to go left. We always go right. Left is scary, right is safe. But left it was and we headed toward the big roller coasters. Perfect, no line! So there we were waiting for the roller coaster to pull up. My son had automatically moved into the lane to sit next to his friend. I would ride behind them (of course) by myself. Then as the coaster pulled up, Connor calmly and confidently moved over to my lane, telling his friend, “I’m riding with my mom.” Friend replies, “cool” and we move to our seats. (Good kid, nice friend!) Now Connor at this point is pumped but a little nervous. He has never been on a really “big time” roller coaster before and I’m trying to down play it for the moment. We strap in and he’s excited, but I see on his face, he’s a little scared too. He tells me, “You know, I’m a little nervous.” And this is how it goes…
“I know buddy. It’ll be okay. I‘m proud of you.”
He gives me a grin and no sooner, we jerk forward, round a corner and start the slow, ticking assent. Up we go, for Connor we go into the total unknown. Just before the crest, just before all speed and craziness break loose, I look at Connor looking down and looking scared and I say,
“Just look straight ahead. Don’t look down. You’ll be great.”
Then, tipping over the top, unleashed, we go! We jerk, we soar, we jerk some more. This is fast and this is fun! We squish to the left and he bumps his elbow on the right. We’re laughing together. We are loving it. I am loving watching my son. I am so proud. This is a moment. As we come to a ticking halt and creep forward to end the ride, Connor is grinning ear to ear, totally happy with himself. Exhilarated.
“So, what’d you think?”, I ask. To my surprise, he replied,
“You were right Mom. I just looked straight ahead and it was awesome!“
Who’d a thought? Something simple and yet profound and I loved him to pieces at that moment. Later, replaying the scene in my mind before sleep, I thought about how he’s growing and changing and how I saw it clearly this night. I thought about being in the moment and my joy as a mom and how much much much I love him.
Then I thought about life and roller coaster rides. Ups, downs, curves ahead we don’t anticipate. We ride high, we ride low, get squished, maybe hurt, we go beyond our comfort zone, we speed forward, we jerk back, we get scared, we laugh, we soar and we fly.
Then I thought about those simple words that made a big difference to Connor‘s ride.
“Don’t look down, just look straight ahead.“ I thought, don’t look down, don’t succumb to fear and the fear of the unknown. Don't see how far down it is, but how high you are. Look straight ahead and look up. Look to the hope, trust, feel the exhilaration, anticipate the flight.
Hold on tight and fly too.
And all this with someone beside you.
Someone who loves you.
Then I thought of Jesus and I drifted off to sleep.
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