Desolee, as they say in french. On July 9th, Jim and I departed on the great adventure. It was early morning, and we were ready to take the great leap. I felt remarkably calm, centered and focused. Of course, I was not hanging out of the door of the plane at that point either. Thirty minutes into our drive to the airport we hit the first storm, the rain coming at us so fast and furiously we had to pull off the highway and proceed at a snail’s pace. It did not last long, and it was advance warning of the day to come, as a series of storm cells marched through the Ottawa River valley.
Arriving in Ottawa, I called the airport and spoke with the young lady scheduling the flights and the jumps. “We have you on stand-by”, she informed me.
“What does that mean exactly?”, I asked.
“We wait until we see a break in the storms, then you take off”.
I am thinking that this is less than perfect for me, imagining us jumping among the huge black cumulus clouds that are crowding the sky, the occasional thunder and lightening circling us like a great celebratory dance. Sky diving took on a whole new dimension as I imagined myself guided to the ground by electric shock therapy.
Despite my reticence, I gave her my cell phone and said , “Call me when we are good to go!”
Jim and I went on to Starbuck’s for a brew and a chat. As it was attached to the Indigo-Chapters bookstore, we wandered, sipphoned through the CD’s on sale coming up with a few gems from the past that we had never replaced from our extensive record collection, like Moody Blues and other favorites, picked up the new Fast Company Magazine and headed out. It was raining, again. Without any discussion I called the shydiving company again and re-sceduled. The young lady seemed non-plussed and non-committal. I was thinking that customer service was not her forte or she is not comfortable speaking english, as it was evident that she was a Francophone.
Ottawa is a great city to hang out in. Off we went to the Glebe, one of our favorite neighbourhoods, had lunch, relaxed. It was a reminder that we were, after all, on vacation. I am learning that a Stay-cation has its merits and downfalls. I love being at home in my gardnes and being a tourist in my own part of the country yet I don’t detach completely from my everyday life.
We went on to have dinner with friends Marie-Josee, Luc and their children Julien and Edouard. Aren’t these amazing names? And yes, they are French Canadian, something that I love about my life here in this part of Canada. M.J.’s mom Louise joined us and this is where I had to make the jump after all, dive into life in a way I had not expected that day. Louise speaks very little english and my French is very rusty. Have courage I thought, you speak French, yes you make mistakes, so what, take the jump.
And so I began, and through patience on my part and my French Canadian hosts, had an amazing conversation about spirit, and life, and children and friendship – all in French and occasionally moitie-moitie – mixed english and french. I also noticed that two glasses of a fine merlot advanced my ability to speak significantly, whether that or my natural inhibitions dropped! Would this be a recipe for the next jump, the one where I leap from the plane, I wondered? Better not – I want to be completely lucid.
We are now booked for Sunday, July 18th at 5 P.M. I will keep you posted. For now I remain calm and serene knowing that when the time is perfect, I will be making that jump.
Before then, a busy week looms ahead with a trip to Toronto to deliver the final Insights Discovery Workshop in the current project I am on follwed by hosting a wedding here at Tigh Shee on Saturday. The Labyrinth and the gardens have been extraordinary this year.
Until next time,
Betty