As a kid growing up, the highlight of summer was our annual trip to King’s Island. We would spend an entire day at the amusement park riding all kinds of rides. We would leave the house before daylight, arrive before the gates opened, and anxiously board the tram with teems of other early-arriving visitors.
Waiting in line for tickets was excruciating but not nearly as painful as listening to the long list of instructions from our parents about where to meet for lunch, etc. Finally, the gates would open, and we would sprint through the park to the roller coaster to be the first in line.
Even now, I feel a tingle of excitement as I sit at my keyboard and remember those days so many years ago. Unlike my siblings, however, my favorite ride was not the roller coaster. It was a ride that resembled a large wooden barrel about 15 feet across, with a movable metal floor. Riders would stand inside the barrel with their backs to the wall and it would spin, eventually gaining enough speed that centrifugal force would pin them to the wall, keeping them from falling even when the floor dropped out from below them.
To me, this was the most insane and out-of-control feeling in the world. Spinning like mad, knowing the floor would drop at any moment and praying that I would stick to the wall when it did. And although I had never fallen, the thought was always in the back of my mind. Of course, I never did fall. I was glued to the wall by an unseen force that I did not understand.
Sometimes I feel like my life is like that ride from my youth. Sometimes, spinning out of control. Other times, feeling like the floor will drop out from beneath me at any moment. And most times wondering if it does, will I be able to keep my place on the spinning ride?
In our often loud and chaotic world, however, it is important to remember that there is always a force greater than us. It is always in control. It holds us in place even though we don’t understand it. It holds us steady. It holds us up even when we feel we are slipping and about to fall.
It has taken me some time to realize that we must relax into this invisible force. Let it guide us and hold us. Let it calm our minds and open our hearts. And, know that, even if we can’t feel it or see it or understand it, it is there. And, if we can give it our attention, we can come to know it as a place of rest. We can come to know it as a place of peace when we are tired and afraid. A safe place that will not let us slip and fall no matter how fast we are spinning. We can come to know it as home.
Funny how much more you remember! Thanks for the memory 🙂