Climbing, Hiking, Breathe In, Breathe Out

Breathe in Breathe out
The years unravel behind me

More years than I have left

I stare down from the edge of a cliff
In this place I used to know so well

Where did the time go?
I travel back in my mind's eye

Laughing, a group of us,
nervous excitement

It's forty feet from the top
Breathe in, breathe out

Get a running start, clear the rocks. Hit the pool, keep whole

How many times?
A dozen risks, a dozen more

Splashing, swimming, climbing, running. Another jump. Exhilaration.

A rock wall, sixty feet up
No one does that

But he did.

The extra risk, chancing all
Inches to spare, breaking the surface

Should have known then
A fine line, Carefree or Careless.

Hard to kill.
Until he wasn't.

Once Upon a time a group of us would indeed come here. Every summer from the ages of 17 to 21. We must not have had droughts back then, because this walk was a river, and there were actual falls, not a trickle.

One of my nearest and dearest always took the biggest risks. Without fail he would try something that could easily get him killed, like jumping from the side cliff that was twenty feet higher with much less room for error.

He did this in every area of his life and he always survived. Until he got it in his head he didn't want to and took himself off the board with a rope and a chair.

I didn't mean for this to turn morbid. When I decided to find this place again, it wasn't him that was on my mind but a young me.

I forgot how incredibly steep the climb down was, fortunately an ambitious soul decided to makeshift a guardrail by wrapping bungees around trees all the way down.

The "river" was a bummer to see, all dried up like this. Normally you could hear the falls halfway down the climb.

Strange, because we got a lot of rain this past week and the Ithaca Falls where I spend my breaks is roaring now. Did the storms miss Geneva completely?

Funny little sidebar- on my walk back this tree snatched the hat off my head. I have this very clear image of a face appearing on the bark, slim twig like fingers on a ropy wood arm reaching out and closing its fist around it.

(Of course that could be because I've been watching fairy tale based series lately :0)

The climb back up is always easier for me. A little more winding, but I don't feel like I'm going to fall ha!

Strange being back here after all these years. It looks so different, and not just because it's dried up.

These eyes that are looking at it, are doing so through a different lens than that long ago girl. I will always be young at heart, but life experience changes a person, for better or worse.

I was initially going to do a video walk through, and I did capture about two minutes worth below- if you wanted to see this place in action :)

Check out @tattoodjay 's awesome Wednesday Walk initiative Here!