Full Circle | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Full Circle | Previous Challenge Entry
By Wilma Schlegel
10/08/14
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Mesmerized. That's what I was. It was the most whimsical, free, unbelievable thing ever - yet there it was - right over my own back yard! It was a shining, pearly grey orb floating across the sky, and look! It had a basket attached underneath and people were in it! People floated, carried in a basket suspended from a balloon! Oh, here were all the wonders a seven-year-old girl could dream about!

I watched it in awe with my dad (who had pointed it out to me) until it faded away in the endless realms of the heavens. I couldn't believe I'd gotten to see something so amazing, something that I thought only existed in stories and right here in my own back yard!

Many years and many lessons in practicality later, I received a flyer from a local community college. The college was offering a course on hot air ballooning, the final class being a ride in a balloon. I read the course description with a detached, disinterested air, wondering what kind of person could be so frivolous as to take a course like that. Then, I couldn't stop thinking about it, the idea pulled at something in the forgotten places in my dreams until I knew what kind of person would take a course like that - this kind!

Excited, delighted, I couldn't wait to sign up! It would be great, thrilling, a dream come true and afterward I'd... I'd what? Tell people? Wouldn't that be bragging? Or maybe, no one would care, maybe everyone else had already done more exciting things than this. Besides, I remembered the room that needed to be painted, the one that used to be sky blue but was looking gray and the curtains there should be replaced. They were becoming dull and stiff - kind of like my life. ... Hmmmm...

My excitement and 'feel good' attitude returned! I sent in the application. The college's answer was prompt and clear. "We regret to inform you Hot-air Ballooning 101 has been canceled due to 'not enough response'."

Oh.

I guess this is how it's supposed to be for me.

Disappointed and frustrated I asked, "Why, Lord? Why do you dangle the proverbial carrot in front of my nose only to keep it just out of my reach?"

I didn't get a reply from the Lord. That is, I didn't get a reply until I started to recognize the form of the reply and the pattern of my responses to life opportunities. Those 'carrots' continued to appear and I'd 'think' them to death. Often they'd disappear again, like the ballooning course. Slowly, I learned that the Lord wasn't withholding opportunities from me. It was me in my hesitancy to act that held me back.

Oh!

I don't know if I've ever enjoyed a breakfast more than the one I shared in the meadow where the balloon landed after our trip. We had muffins, coffee and juice, (champagne, if we wished). We talked about the blue sky, the sunshine, the breeze and the patchwork pattern of the countryside below. We talked about how smooth our floating ride was. We relived the moment when we just skimmed the treetops and tilted ever so slightly, holding our breath (and our knuckles white as they gripped the gondola). We weren't scared, really we weren't.

For me there was one other memory, a special one. I'll keep in my heart the picture of the wide-eyed child who watched, entranced, as we crossed her sky and waved to her.

Thank you, Lord, for the innocent attitude of that child; for her unhidden wonder and her ability to see, to dream and to believe. Help her and help me too, to keep that kind of wonder alive and to be willing to try something new, in Your will. In You I am mesmerized.

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