“We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand and melting like a snowflake.”

– Marie Beyon Ray, American author
 

“You don’t seem too nervous?”

“What?” I couldn’t hear my instructor over the drone of the aircraft’s engine.

“You seem awfully calm,” he said, leaning closer and nearly yelling into my ear, “for someone about to experience their first skydive.” I smiled and gave him the thumbs-up signal. My son, Kyle looked over at me, smiled and nodded. The truth was I did feel strangely calm for someone who would – in a few moments – be jumping out of a perfectly good airplane at 10,000 feet. It would take the small, single-engine aircraft 25 minutes to spiral upward to 10,000 feet.<...

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