ZIP LINE MEDITATION

The basic ingredients to a typical zip line setup are a starting point on an elevated location, a destination on a lower plane, and a steel cable that links the two. In some setups, participants have to climb up a tower, a ladder, or a building to reach the starting point.  In other circumstances, the starting point is at a naturally higher elevation that the destination.

Before beginning the activity, participants put on a harness. Again, the types of harness vary widely. Some permit sitting and flipping, some merely strap in the lower half of the body, some the whole body, legs to shoulder, whereas others are designed to turn people into human flying squirrels.

A key component of zip lines is the trolley – the wheel that glides over the steel cable. The trolley is connected to the harness via a lanyard that is securely clipped into both the trolley and the harness and to which one can hold on.

At the Loyola Retreat and Ecology Campus, participants in the zip line challenge course climb stairs to reach a platform from which they take off. The destination is a point above a moveable ladder. Once participants have come to a halt – after gliding back and forth – the ladder is wheeled in place, the trolley is removed from the zip line, and the trek up the hill to the starting point begins.

After climbing the tower and listening to instructions, I clipped my trolley lanyard to both my harness and the zip line. At that point, the back of my harness was safely secured to the tower via an additional rope and the door into the abyss in front of me was closed and locked.  I was given the option of standing on the wooden floor or stepping onto a wooden box for shorter folks. Standing on that box resulted in more slack on the lanyard, whereas standing on the floor resulted in a tauter connection between trolley and harness.

The difference between the two was remarkable for me and let to some reflections of a spiritual nature. Standing on the box, I felt  connected to the above, but not so much to ground underneath. Immediately, I felt fear creep it.  Stepping off the box made me feel more secure: standing on lower ground, the tension between the above and below was just right. With the connection between the above and the below in right balance, I felt secure.

Feeling secure, I was able to sit down into my harness and to let my harness, lanyard, and trolley transport me safely down the zip line.  When the door was opened and the rope holding me in the back was disconnected, I simply glided from sitting into flying, enjoying every bit of the ride. Sitting down into the harness gave me the assurance that the connection to the “above” was strong and would hold. 

So what is helping you feel connected to the Spirit above and the ground below?  What is helping you feel secure and lift off to the adventure that lie ahead?

There you have it! Those are a few things that came to my mind while waiting for the action to begin.