Living My Life Like It's The Only One I've Got

This weekend found me ticking yet another thing off my bucketlist and I can't begin to tell you what a natural drug of happiness and utter joy this feels like, being able to do this. This is just my opinion and I acknowledge that not everyone feels like I do.

This life? I may not get the chance to do it over again or anew so, aside from taking charge of all my mundane responsibilities like mortgage, groceries, bills etc, there has to be more than this to my life, yeah?

I started creating lists a while ago of all the things that I would like to experience and do and started making my way to completing them. They started off with little things and it grew to include the things that made me absolutely and utterly HAPPY to the point of bursting with so much joy that I would just explode. Studying photography was one of these things and here I am, doing it.

Another thing on my list that started off small but ended up growing was my total enjoyment of aerial sports. When I turned 30 years old, rather than have a party, I chose to go skydiving with a close friend, Jenny, and although I passed out a couple hundred feet off the ground, it changed my life! I came out of that experience feeling invinceable, strong and undefeatable and, most importantly - in love with my life.

It didn't matter what happened from that point, I knew I could grab it with both hands and either embrace it or throw it away. The other thing I was going to do was get my motorbike licence but passing out made me reassess that as I had two small children at the time...hehehe.

After skydiving, there was parasailing a few times and then microlighting and hot air ballooning and now helicopter flying......and with each experience, I felt a different joy and elation. It was freedom at its best! I have to say that my favourite experience was definitely microlighting. For an entire hour, I was an eagle......I flew like a bird, soaring up to breathtaking heights and gliding down to awe-inspiring views. My heart was at its happiest in those moments. Grant was in his own microlight and, together, we flew in and around each other while we danced above glorious and majestic snow-capped mountains in an aerial ballet that was simply heavenly!

A lot like skydiving, I was free to go in any direction that I wanted at any speed and, in those moments, I felt like crying with absolute bliss. THIS must be what flying to heaven must feel like. Like there is nothing that can hurt or bruise you (except if your 'chute didn't open but, let's face it, if that happened, I'm guessing you'd feel nothing anyway) and the whole world is yours to fly over.

At take off with all these moments, I couldn't help but hoot and whoop because it felt like I was leaving all my cares down on earth and going to a place, for a small moment, where it was just me and the skies and whatever was in my heart. Pragmatically, there was always some flight expert controlling my flightpath but I always forgot about him. All those 'him's fade away when I was up there!

So this weekend, with Grant in tow, we did the helicopter thing and I WANT MY OWN! What a fabulous contraption it is that takes you upward and then wherever you want to go. I hooted and whooped - can't help it - it is the sound of captured joy escaping my chest.

I have no idea what's next for me but I think everyone owes it to themselves to experience this sense of freedom from all the tangible things that keep you rooted to all your sensibilities. Whether it's on a motorbike or a scooter or a boat or an aeroplane, do it! Take leave of your senses so that you appreciate them when you come back down to earth!

Your houses, your cars, your material things will still be here, waiting for you when you return. But for a brief moment, give yourself the gift of flight so that you actually FEEL ALIVE!

My smile plastered my face from that initial lift-off and stayed that way for the flight and I still have it......