Life On The Edge

Do you ever feel like you are living on the edge? Like things are at a teetering point about to tip one way or the other? All you would have to do is blow a little puff and it would set off the motion. Have you ever played the game, "Mousetrap?" Throughout the game, you build the plastic pieces into their slots and connections until the end when the foot kicks, the ball rolls, the arm drops, the hand tips, the next ball rolls into the tub, lands on the diving board, the funny man jumps into the pool, the trap drops and the mouse is caught. Sometimes the pieces don't do their part and the mouse stays safe. One broken piece, one piece sliding a bit off balance, and nothing works right.

• Life on the edge: of disaster.

Listen to the news media. We are always on the edge of a weather crisis, an economic crisis, a gas crisis, an educational crisis, a health crisis...here in Southern California, we are always on the edge of "The Big One," the earthquake that will drop us all off the edge into the ocean.

• Life on the edge: of tears.

Emotional roller coasters. Challenges. Conflicts.

• Life on the edge: of giving up.

It's too hard, too uncomfortable, too challenging. Why bother? It never works out right anyway. I'll never get it right. Do you ever feel this way?

There is another perspective. Always, if we dig deeply enough, there is another perspective.

• Life on the edge: of adventure.

A new job, a new state, a new house, new skills (not a crisis). Looking forward to all there is still to learn, of enjoying the learning process (which does mean stumbling and failing sometimes). Pushing the limits, stretching the boundaries. A course called, "Learning 101," would be about testing the boundaries, stepping into the unknown, looking forward to adventure. Willing to try new things (not seen just as a challenge). Teens, becoming young adults, are good at pushing the limits, stretching the boundaries. Testing (not just conflict). Growing. Discovering the freshness of adventure in each new day.

Like our Mousetrap game, we are all full of broken pieces and missed connections. We drop the ball and don't carry through. We forget to do what we were supposed to do. We don't get it all hooked together the right way. We miss an important part. We are afraid to even start the ball rolling. "What if it doesn't work?" "What will happen if...?" Fears.

I was fussing to myself about this, that, and the other, and facetiously, thought about the term, "adventure." In my reading the next morning, Reaching Higher, by Poppy Smith, she said,

"Every situation that is less than perfect can be a spiritual adventure - an opportunity to move forward with God."

A spiritual adventure. A heart open to the Lord, like a flower bud, gently opening. How we live is not about location. It is a heart condition. Be brave. Be willing to learn, to laugh, to listen. The dignity and simple beauty of a life in process, even with broken, out of balance parts.

Living on the edge? Yes, the edge of adventure, of discovery, of dignity.