Without Trapeze

Grounded. Again. That's what it feels like.

Like a child who has been sent to their room, no iPhone, no Netflix, their favorite toy taken away. That's life for a flyer without trapeze.

It's been pretty quiet around here because there's not much to report trapeze-wise. I haven't been up in the air in two months, so rather than continuing to relive old memories, like I'm reliving old glory days on the football field, I've just been suffering alone in silence (sort of). 

The only up side is, the loss of grip strength has resulted in my fingers shrinking down to their normal size, which means my wedding and engagement rings now fit once again. And my palms are no longer terrifying to little kids (and my husband).

I know I'm not the only one of my Orlando friends fiending for flight. We talk about our lack of a trapeze home on the regular and discuss plans for a big family trip to a rig out of town. A date and location is still TBD. It turns out it's pretty tough to find a full-sized outdoor rig that is operational through the summer months. We have high hopes for the new rig opening up in Sarasota and look forward to making it down to the West Palm rig as soon as they are back up and running. 

The weather here is finally cooling down to a temperature where you aren't sweating the second you walk out the door. Great news for outdoor flying because that means the chalk will retain it's chalky-like texture and not turn into soap seconds after you apply it to your skin. While I love a nice, hot, sweaty yoga class, I prefer my trapeze at a temperature where I don't feel like me, the trapeze and my catcher are all melting.

This shift in weather also brings with it, a change to my status from grounded to flying trapeze mouse once again. This weekend I'll finally get to scurry up the ladder to my favorite perch in the air. I am so grateful to have this opportunity to fly with some close friends, at a place that's very special to all of us. 

Immediately when I found out about flying this weekend, I started running over everything I need to work on (my layout/force out/returning/etc). I had to literally tell myself to pump the breaks, reminding myself that this weekend is just for fun. A time to be with my flying family, enjoying our favorite activity together. I then made a promise to leave my A-type personality and the pressure I put on myself at the bottom of the ladder. If my forward over is there, it's there, if it's not, it's not. It doesn't really matter if my form isn't flawless or my harder tricks aren't solid, because what does matter is that I'll feel the air breezing by my cheeks once again and I'll feel the tight grip of my catchers hands around my wrists and the embrace of my friends as they scoop me back onto the board, tasting that freedom and friendship that drew me to flying trapeze in the first place.

My intention for this weekend is to RELAX and go back to a place where I was just grateful to be in the air, laughing on the board, cheering on my friends and making new memories.

With that, I'll relive one more old memory with you...

Last year on the board with Rob and Uncle Tony