lines.

Yesterday, I witnessed a guy get sling shot into the ground by a slackline. It's weird how life moves in slow motion when you know something crazy is about to occur. He was running across the lawn  at full speed, being chased by a smiling friend. And as I watched him come closer and closer, everyone around the slackline got quiet- there were maybe six of us out there and not a single person piped up. I felt all of us think at the same time "Does he see the line??" and then he folded into it. His head hit the ground so hard I felt it reverberate through the bottom of my feet.

What's ironic is that later, I told my roommate KD about it and we both agreed that it is the kind of thing "that would happen to" her since she often walks around a little distracted. But definitely not because we wanted it to! But it did tonight after one of the boys left their line up in the dark on the administration building lawn. She was running fast to her car when it caught her across the neck and clotheslined her like a sumo wrestler into the grass. 

Sometimes you gotta run right into something, no thinking and with gusto and passion. And I find that there are lots of things that can slam you out of nowhere telling you to feel regretful, not good enough, as if the decision to seize what is it you are running towards is a bad idea. 

This is so not a new idea- to put yourself out there because life's about the journey, not the destination, blah blah blah. But I guess what I'm trying to acknowledge in my own life right now is that maybe it is also important to get caught seriously off guard by a hypothetical slackline in order to remember to avoid it or jump over it or just maybe take it down the next time you book it across the lawn. 

I get that. Literally after the past couple of days and also metaphorically :)