Woke Up This Morning...Never Saw This Coming

Mike's Jump Photo Scotland Willis RemarkableEye.com

Life is full of extraordinary experiences; the more you seek them the more they will  become part of your life.  And each experience is dictated by the amount of energy you apply to be vulnerable to that experience so that you can embrace it.  Be ready because here it comes!

I woke up this morning, continuing my pursuit of building my own home.  By many standards this could be considered a major accomplishment-- I would generally be inclined to agree; today however was embedded with a bit of a twist.

As I was headed into town to pick up some additional supplies to begin the plumbing work, I saw a small group of people assembled, only two vehicles, looking skyward.  As it does with most onlookers, it caught my attention and I began to look skyward.  Initially I thought perhaps someone was repelling or rock climbing; to my surprise, it was a couple of men base jumping! (check out the video here)

JP's Jump in an undisclosed location

Now one must understand, base jumping is an event that is not common among the majority of the population; I would guess that less than 1/10 of 1% or less would even consider base jumping.  It is a cocktail of a leap of faith, insanity, adrenaline junkie and liberation from all the things in life that bind us and oppress the human spirit that makes you feel alive.  Moreover, base jumping occurs so quickly and is over in less than an instant.  So seeing this event was rare.  So rare in fact that I missed the first jump and missed half of the second jump.

But a natural born opportunist I drove off; then realized that I would be missing an opportunity of a lifetime if I did not go back and at least talk to the two people who had just embraced life in a way most can only dream of or fear all together.

So I turned my vehicle around and stopped to chat.  Mike and JP were the two base jumpers.  I initially was only able to talk to Mike, but that was enough.  He picked up on my enthusiasms and allowed me to prod a little bit.  After a 5-7 minute conversation, Mike informed me that they would  be jumping again today, after  I told him I would love to shoot the jump.  I had both my HD video camera and my second still camera with me-- never leave home without them.  JP then jumped into the conversation and asked the pertinent question after I asked if I could hike up with them for the shoot, "how good are you at climbing?", I replied "good".

So I headed off to town to eat, run a few errands etc.  Before I knew it Mike was texting me saying that they were about to do another jump if I wanted to go with them.  Darn!  I was not quite ready yet, and still had a few things to do, but I think I could make it work.

After Mike asked if I could be there by 9:30, I told him probably more like 9:45.  I began to pick up the pace with my list of todo's and began to wonder if I even needed to really do this things.

What is peculiar is that I almost did not go into town; I was prepared to head up to the work site and continue my project Antlers Edge; plus I had visitors coming to town-- my mother, my son, my granddaughter and his girlfriend, I wanted to prepare,  I turned around less than half way there and decided I would burn some time as it was before 7 a.m.-- something I did not realize.

So I rush back to the jump site and luckily Mike and JP were patient enough to wait 20 minutes for me to catch up to them.  I threw my video camera bag over my back and we began the trek up to the cliff they would jump off.  Their preparation was meticulous but routine, as have had hundreds of jumps.

Life is full of chance moments and we never truly know what to expect so two things come to mind: 1) enjoy the human experience, it is full of gifts and even the negative experience can and in many cases do, lead to the extraordinary-- backtrack and you may be surprised by the events that lead you to where you are; 2) allow fate to intervene and chance to play a role in making you life outstanding. I live each day open to being vulnerable and never regret it; it puts a new face on vulnerability, one I find very appealing.

I got to meet two great people, who allowed me to enter their lives for a brief moment in time, capturing a priceless experience up close and personal.  Never miss the opportunity to seize the day.