Remember when we were in high school playing the best (and only) video game Pong and…oh wait a minute I just totally dated myself. No Gen X’er here. A Boomer for sure. Yikes! But regardless of how old I am, remember when you got enough points at whatever game you were playing to go into “extended play”? That part of the game where you were given another chance to keep playing, keep amassing more credits to continue on into Unchartered Territory. The excitement of going past the point you thought possible – opportunity to play some more like an unexpected gift. Well that’s how I live these days.
Just about 18 years ago I almost died. Out of all of my numerous near death experiences, this one felt like The End for sure. To make a very long story much shorter; I was on a mountain bike ride with two friends in Montclair New Jersey and the trail we were riding was along the edge of a cliff. I had ridden this trail a thousand times before but never in the direction we rode that day. The trail started at the base of a cliff and wound around to its highest point of maybe 60-70 feet off the ground. We started climbing parallel to the cliff and eventually the trail turned down to the right and towards the woods. Well I’m sure you know what happened next, correct? Yup. I didn’t go right but straight and I fell off the cliff on my bike. I wasn’t sure at what height I was going off at but was pretty positive it was high enough that I was going to die. In the eternity that it seemed like I had before launching over the precipice, I was in total denial about what was going to happen. I tried unsuccessfully to stop short of the edge (I remember thinking how odd it was my brakes didn’t work). At the last minute every ounce of adrenaline kicked in and I stretched out towards a small sapling at the top of the cliff hoping it would hold me. The next instant I was falling. Now everyone thinks you will get a millisecond review of your entire career from birth to that now unexpected death moment. For me everything went black and I felt myself totally relax. For some reason I was aware of the seconds passing as I fell. I hit the ground hard and opened my eyes to see my bike land next to me and continue bouncing down the rest of the slope. I tried to stand up but couldn’t and then fell back staring up at the gray sky. I was alive. At least I thought I was, or maybe I was dreaming I was alive. Maybe this is Death, I thought but why would my Yo Eddy Fat Chance mountain bike be with me in the afterlife? I pondered this until I heard my buddy Geoff minutes later screaming, “O my god, O MY GOD, HELP!!!!” Then I knew I was still here on Earth. What I didn’t know then but am fully aware of now is this: I got extended play in the Game of Life. I fell 35 feet (luckily only midway to the highest point), landed flat on my back and suffered a severed patella tendon (no idea how). That’s it. My bike suffered a flat rear tire and 3 weeks later I was riding the same bike with my right leg in a cast hanging off to one side as I pedaled around the yard lefty. Also, what I didn’t comprehend then and I definitely do now is that I got to do things differently this time around. It didn’t miraculously happen in one near death instant, but those things that I had been wishing for my whole life coalesced in a split second that rainy July afternoon. Let’s say the seed of those things I yearned for were planted that day and it has taken time for that seed (for me really) to grow into the life I yearned for. It has happened, and I am forever grateful for that day years ago. It woke me up.
I got to thinking about that day of my “second chance” after reading about the US Air flight that crash landed in the Hudson River. How beautiful a story! How totally miraculous that no one perished, and that even the relatively few injuries were minor. Those passengers and crew on that flight have been given extended play. I’m sure each person had the feeling that this is how they would die as the engines kicked out right after take off. To die in a plane crash. Not many stories of grace and survival with regards to air travel. Yet they all survived. They were able to walk away. Now who knows how their minds will interpret that outcome. But when Death has been passed over for more Life the opportunity is enormous to make something more out of the time remaining. To see the gift in living on, to see the opportunity to make choices that serve those things that really matter. And that may look totally different for each person, but are no less important. As a survivor myself the only advice I might offer those passengers of the US Air flight is this: do away with the limiting beliefs of what it “should be” and live like you know what matters most to you. Life has added more time to the Game. Play with abandon and love and tremendous gratitude.
I’d like to add a caution here to those who have not survived a near death moment. Don’t go hucking yerself into harms way or take unnecessary risks (unless you’re an adrenaline junky) just to find out what’s important to you. It can be found by sitting quietly in your favorite chair. Or taking a walk in Nature. Use the endless opportunities available to each of us to evaluate what’s most precious to you and go live it.
Go on, go live your Dream. How sweet it is when you finally do…
J
Just about 18 years ago I almost died. Out of all of my numerous near death experiences, this one felt like The End for sure. To make a very long story much shorter; I was on a mountain bike ride with two friends in Montclair New Jersey and the trail we were riding was along the edge of a cliff. I had ridden this trail a thousand times before but never in the direction we rode that day. The trail started at the base of a cliff and wound around to its highest point of maybe 60-70 feet off the ground. We started climbing parallel to the cliff and eventually the trail turned down to the right and towards the woods. Well I’m sure you know what happened next, correct? Yup. I didn’t go right but straight and I fell off the cliff on my bike. I wasn’t sure at what height I was going off at but was pretty positive it was high enough that I was going to die. In the eternity that it seemed like I had before launching over the precipice, I was in total denial about what was going to happen. I tried unsuccessfully to stop short of the edge (I remember thinking how odd it was my brakes didn’t work). At the last minute every ounce of adrenaline kicked in and I stretched out towards a small sapling at the top of the cliff hoping it would hold me. The next instant I was falling. Now everyone thinks you will get a millisecond review of your entire career from birth to that now unexpected death moment. For me everything went black and I felt myself totally relax. For some reason I was aware of the seconds passing as I fell. I hit the ground hard and opened my eyes to see my bike land next to me and continue bouncing down the rest of the slope. I tried to stand up but couldn’t and then fell back staring up at the gray sky. I was alive. At least I thought I was, or maybe I was dreaming I was alive. Maybe this is Death, I thought but why would my Yo Eddy Fat Chance mountain bike be with me in the afterlife? I pondered this until I heard my buddy Geoff minutes later screaming, “O my god, O MY GOD, HELP!!!!” Then I knew I was still here on Earth. What I didn’t know then but am fully aware of now is this: I got extended play in the Game of Life. I fell 35 feet (luckily only midway to the highest point), landed flat on my back and suffered a severed patella tendon (no idea how). That’s it. My bike suffered a flat rear tire and 3 weeks later I was riding the same bike with my right leg in a cast hanging off to one side as I pedaled around the yard lefty. Also, what I didn’t comprehend then and I definitely do now is that I got to do things differently this time around. It didn’t miraculously happen in one near death instant, but those things that I had been wishing for my whole life coalesced in a split second that rainy July afternoon. Let’s say the seed of those things I yearned for were planted that day and it has taken time for that seed (for me really) to grow into the life I yearned for. It has happened, and I am forever grateful for that day years ago. It woke me up.
I got to thinking about that day of my “second chance” after reading about the US Air flight that crash landed in the Hudson River. How beautiful a story! How totally miraculous that no one perished, and that even the relatively few injuries were minor. Those passengers and crew on that flight have been given extended play. I’m sure each person had the feeling that this is how they would die as the engines kicked out right after take off. To die in a plane crash. Not many stories of grace and survival with regards to air travel. Yet they all survived. They were able to walk away. Now who knows how their minds will interpret that outcome. But when Death has been passed over for more Life the opportunity is enormous to make something more out of the time remaining. To see the gift in living on, to see the opportunity to make choices that serve those things that really matter. And that may look totally different for each person, but are no less important. As a survivor myself the only advice I might offer those passengers of the US Air flight is this: do away with the limiting beliefs of what it “should be” and live like you know what matters most to you. Life has added more time to the Game. Play with abandon and love and tremendous gratitude.
I’d like to add a caution here to those who have not survived a near death moment. Don’t go hucking yerself into harms way or take unnecessary risks (unless you’re an adrenaline junky) just to find out what’s important to you. It can be found by sitting quietly in your favorite chair. Or taking a walk in Nature. Use the endless opportunities available to each of us to evaluate what’s most precious to you and go live it.
Go on, go live your Dream. How sweet it is when you finally do…
J
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