Altitude

Costa Rica has the best ziplines. Strap in. Hang on. Talk with Jesus. That kind of zipline. Not just one tree to the next. It’s more like one mountain to the next. 
 
I can’t get enough of it. I would go back to Arenal today just to fly. That is some serious altitude addiction.
 
Maybe I could convince Bob to take me back for my Goose-iversary.
One year of I’m Still A Goose.
A lot of words.
Over 9,000 hits. Merci and Gracias!
 
This goose project has reached a cruising altitude. Not too high and not too low. Just perfect for me.
 
I have learned a lot about altitude. As I look back over the year of this goose and read through my first posts, I realize that His love lessons sustain me. His grace keeps me on course, no matter my altitude.
 
I’ve learned a few things about geese, too. They are
-loyal, caring, amicable.
-protective, elegant, purposeful.
 
These traits with which a goose is identified remind me of the person I aspire to be.
 
Nature provides geese come with incredible instincts. Instincts to protect, soar, and travel to the ends of the earth. Instincts to choose its gaggle, its group of friends or family. They choose to live in unity.
 
Each bird flies stronger and with more purpose than it could if it were alone. The V formation is nature’s design to most help geese whatever altitude they choose. They fly low or they fly high. They fly together. They depend on one another.
 
One goose gets tired, so it rotates back giving another goose the front position. There’s lifting power in that formation! It ensures group support- group survival. That familiar honk we hear is actually encouragement. The loving power of geese is quite impressive.
 
If one goose becomes sick, wounded, or hurting, its group will not abandon it. A few will follow the ailing goose to protect him. This enchants me.
 
The goose is never alone to fight its battles. Never alone to rest and restore. Never alone in its struggles or its victories. We geese need our tribe. Our friends. That gaggle of precious souls that God sends us-
to keep us straight,
to remind us to be humble,
to forgive us,
and to lift us as we fly.
 
I love to fly with my crew under the radar, but sometimes I don’t get my way. I love to feel His air lifting the wings of this tired traveler. He sometimes will let me fly on to see how far I might get when blue skies turn dark. I even knowingly fly into storms when my instincts cringe against this flight pattern. 
 
There is one thing that can prevent geese from flying strong.
From reaching His destination for us.
It's air pollution.
 
We fill up our own skies with toxic rhetoric, insufferable encumbrances of insecurities, and contaminated chemical reactions of fear, hurt, and jealousy mixed with pride. It’s our human nature. Sometimes it’s a deliberate choice, but more often we don’t realize what we are doing until we are in the middle of an inescapable weather pattern. We hunker down, searching for safety in our squalls that are too terrible to bear. We have to wait for them to pass.
 
A goose can’t fly if it’s weighted down. I have surrendered my fear and doubts just to pick many of them back up again. It depends on the day and on my journey. We geese need to clean and clear the air from time to time.
 
The only air pollution solution is forgiveness.
It’s the only way to keep flying.
Forgiving yourself and forgiving others as He also forgives us.
 
The altitude may change, but He doesn’t.
 
I’m still a goose and I kinda like it.
 
Sky Trek is a unique zipline circuit that stretches across canyons, going from one mountain to another, and in between treetops. It truly is an exhilarating adventure of zip lining down the mountains. Arenal, Costa Rica.

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