How friends help you fly!!

FP4H travelled to Sandy Cove on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland for a week of wellness. We ate delicious healthy food, were motivated and informed by people like Carole Lewis, Vicki Heath and others, tried out lots of different exercise classes like Pilates and water aerobics and THEN, we did THE BIG SWING. Have you ever seen the big swing at Sandy Cove? Well, it's not just a big seat on a swing that you sit on and look like Edith Ann (if you're under 30, you're probably looking at the computer with a puzzled look on your face wondering who Edith Ann is...). Anyway, the big swing includes a harness that they strap you into (snuggly) and then you climb a ladder and they hook you up. You may be wondering, "Hook you up to what?" Well, they hook you up to a cable and you step off the ladder and kind of dangle there. Then, a group of your friends start to pull the other end of this cable which begins to raise you up in the air. At one point, you start to think, "SURELY I'm at the top by now...", but nope. There's still higher you can go. Somewhere around 30 feet in all. All the while, you're holding this strap that keeps you from falling...I mean swinging... :p. After you get to the top, you tell your friends when you're ready to let go, otherwise they'll all fall over like dominoes when you release. And then you let go and you FLYYYYYYYY! (and scream!) And your friends hoot and holler and celebrate with you as you swing back and forth.

What a great metaphor for our FP4H class. A group of friends that, using their own strengths (and everyone pulling that rope is at a different level of fitness), pull you up so that you can soar. And they celebrate with you when you do. They laugh at you when you do the "big swing walk" (some of you know what I mean...). I bet there are some people that have done the big swing that would never have seen themself doing something like that, but with a group of friends cheering them on and helping them rise up, they did it. How empowering. It's a lot like a FP4H class. We lift each other up and help each other succeed through our own particular strengths and God's grace. There is such love and support in a FP4H class. I feel it every time I walk into my Tuesday noon meeting. Do you?