On the Ledge

No one needs to explain to me what it means to talk someone off the ledge. On the contrary, I usually need to be coaxed on to the ledge.

Then I wonder how I got there... and how I can get off before my heart stops beating in fear. Fear of heights, fear of falling, fear of the unknown.

While cruising around northern Vermont with our distant cousins, we stopped at a little wide spot in the road because they wanted us to see a pretty waterfall. I'm sure I was out of the car with my camera faster than I can type this sentence. I climbed up rocks and got to a flat spot that I knew was going to allow us a nice view of the waterfall.

Only problem is, there was an edge to the rocks. And I was pretty sure the world dropped a million feet down from there. I inched forward for a step or two but suddenly felt too tall. Too far off the safety of the ground. So I sort of crawled close to the edge, breathing deeply and going slowly -- as to not shake the Earth off its axis.

Did you think I was kidding?? I really never did get close to the edge. But hubby not only got a pitiful shot of his wife, he also got the waterfall.

He's so brave! He's my hero! I obviously feel safer at the bottom of the waterfall, closer to ground level!

But yet, I still allow myself to get too close to the edge sometimes and wonder how I got there. I think it is my nature to go full steam ahead. The problem is that when you get to an "edge," you don't have much time to stop before going over.

I've been doing that lately. Cruising along at a good clip, feeling pretty good about where life is taking me, when I turn a sharp corner and bam! I am slapped with some major "unknowns." I am teetering at the edge and not sure what is beyond it. It's scary. I can't step backwards because it is not an option. I'm not brave enough to step forward either. Not at this point. I sort of have to wait, patiently, not looking down but hoping either a bridge magically appears before me or, at a minimum, hubby takes my hand.

I can't rely on him to always be the brave one, though.

When we stopped to see what is called the Ausable Chasm in New York, we sauntered out onto this bridge to see this big "crack" in the wall of rock. As soon as we both looked over the edge, we both jumped back and just about passed out. Whoa, vertigo! It was so far down, we couldn't even get close to the side of the bridge to take a picture looking down!

This is as close as I got. Can you see the tiny scenic overlook on the other side? Those people are insane!

We just kept walking across the bridge -- thankfully a very sturdy one -- and I went over to look on the other side. Hubby stayed where he was. Until I called him over to see the pretty surprise.

Sometimes we need to quit squeezing our eyes shut in fear and see what is right in front of us. Maybe it's not so bad!

I will think of these beautiful pictures as we hang out on the ledge and wait to see what transpires. We don't know what God has planned for us.

But we do know He hasn't allowed us to fall yet!