I told myself, as I often tell my kids, it's good to face our fears. Or as my friend, Susanne, says, "Face your fear, watch it disappear." What better way to start the year off right than facing your fears, literally jumping away from safety and trusting that you will not fall/fail. I admit, this required a ton of self-calming talk. "You can do it. It'll be fine. The wire will hold you. You will not go smashing down 100 feet to the forest floor and land in a heap of broken bones while your children look on. You are not a bad parent for letting your children leap off the edge of the world and fling themselves across the forest held only by a thin wire. They will not die. You will not die...." You get the picture. 

I don't think I realized how scared I was of heights until I was up in the trees. But there was something really exhilarating about facing that fear. The zipping part was actually really fun. It was the standing around on the high platforms that freaked me out and made me feel like I might puke. I was thinking maybe ziplining could be just as fun down low, like maybe 10 feet off the ground. Why did they need to be up so high?

But the point is, I got through it. And the more times I went, the calmer I got and the more I was able to enjoy the whole thing. I even opened my eyes after the first couple, and eventually was able to look around as I soared through the forest like Tarzan.