Roller coaster: It's Just About... Life - Life & The Sunday Series

Yes, it’s just like life. As a matter of fact it is life. The roller coaster ride.

Up, down, sideways, sometimes into a corkscrew, around a giant loop, or upside down.

My daughters and I did our annual dad-daughter day this week before we send at least one of them off to camp, (the other going soon), and thoroughly enjoyed our “coaster day” at Six Flags.

We rose to the challenge for a bunch of those wild rides – Superman (Virtual Reality Coaster), Batwing, The Wild One, Apocalypse… the list goes on and on.

I realize too, riding with them on these monsters of steel and speed, (or seemingly rickety wood), how fleeting time and our lives can be, how there just seems to be no way to slow it down. Our oldest, Sophie, is two years away from graduating high school and heading off to college. Our youngest, Emily, starts high school this coming fall.

Life is and continues to be a roller coaster ride. Sometimes the ride makes you queasy, sometimes it makes you sick, sometimes you hop-off and have work to regain your balance and sometimes it’s so good you’re ready for another go-round.

As you are slowly climbing the first hill on that coaster you get anxious about what that first big drop will feel like and the fall can be hard and fast. But as soon as you hit the bottom, somehow you recover, shooting back to the top, or twisting around, or going upside down in a big loop. It never seems to be the same way twice, but as long as it’s forward motion it’s all good, because you can’t go back.

The drops don’t last, the coaster car recovers and so do you…hopefully the thrill lingers, as do the memories.

Life can be uneven at best, sometimes you scream, sometimes you shout, sometimes you close your eyes.

But what I want for the girls, have always wanted, is for them to get the chance and gain the courage to raise their hands straight up in the air – because life is that wild ride… you want them to have a good one. It will no doubt have dips, twists and turns and the occasional stomach drop, but if you can just hang on, then you hope to be clapping your hands and smiling at the end…knowing you conquered the challenge before you. Then there is reason to celebrate. Life puts the track underneath you – you’ve got to be strong, courageous, ride the ride and fight to the finish.

I can now count on one hand the number of years before both girls will be “moving on” to greater adventures, but until then, and even after that time, I plan to be there for every thrilling twist and turn of that roller coaster ride.

Sophie & Emily thank you for every day, it’s a gift. And just as importantly, thanks for the memories. The journey continues…

Daddy