Written by Karen D. Swim
Yesterday, my family gave a surprise party to celebrate my mother’s 70th birthday. The first thing I saw when I arrived on the street was the top of the moon bounce peeking over the top of my sister’s house. (A moon bounce is kind of like an enclosed trampoline, except bouncier.) Now this could make things a lot more interesting! After carrying food and flowers to the yard, I chatted and laughed with family as we waited for the birthday “girl” to arrive.
After 20 minutes, I could no longer hold out and placed my high heel shoes next to the row of tiny sneakers and pink moccasins. Heck, they didn’t have these things when I was growing up and it looked fun. While whooping and hollering it up with the kids and my nutty cousin Lisa (who is my age and crawled in right before me) it occurred to me that life is a lot like a moon bounce.
The window of opportunity is sometimes a tiny opening. To get into the moon bounce, there is a tiny little opening at the top of a small ramp. You can’t just walk up and enter the bounce. You have to walk up (without falling off the side) and then propel or slither your way in under a flap that opens just a wee bit. In life, some opportunities are behind the tiniest of doors. They may not even appear immediately visible. However, when you make it up the ramp and shimmy through, you are pleasantly surprised on the other side.
Bouncing on one side causes imbalance. If you bounce on one side of the moon bounce you risk sliding downward. Bouncing in the middle is ideal allowing you to veer a little to the left, or right with no risk of injury. When you bounce on one side in life (such as work) you risk the other things sliding off to the side.
It’s easier to bounce higher once you have momentum. Once you find your footing and are bouncing up and down, it is much easier to bounce just a little higher without much effort. Sometimes in your life you’re on a roll, or a bounce. You have tackled a challenge or completed a major project and your confidence is pretty high. In those moments, it is easy to get started on a new goal or accept another challenge because you are already in the air.
When bouncing around, keep your eyes alert. While bouncing up and down, me and my nephew decided on flips at the exact same moment. Like two unwiedly underwater acrobats, we dove from opposite directions and collided. Luckily, only his hands smacked me in the head as he landed across me. We collapsed in giggles. Sometimes we are going along in life, bouncing around and out of nowhere (or so it seems) an obstacle collides in our pathway. It’s important to keep your eyes open so that you don’t crash!
After moon bouncing, and later being bounced off the ramp to the grass, I was a little less than ahem photo ready. Life can toss you around at times too. You may fall down, and even get smacked in the head, but nothing that can’t be all forgotten with a little cake!
How, about you? How’s your bounce these days? Are you soaring high or tumbling around? What are your tips for staying grounded while still enjoying life?
This entry is a contribution to Robert Hruzek’s August Group Writing Project, Metaphors for Life. If you would like to participate, there is still plenty of time. The deadline for entries is August 10th. Thanks Robert for allowing me to explore the ongoing hilarity of life with this project!