Practice for Life

Practice for Life

It had been bothering Sally for days now. Much longer than that actually, but it had been just in the past few days that this idea had formed. Maybe there was something she could do about her life, some little way to practice climbing up to and through that glass ceiling as it was called.

She felt so stuck. Her job, her love life, her plans for the future—nowhere did she see a place to move along. She was afraid, she knew, of taking steps to make changes happen. That’s when it came to her. She was afraid of making upward moves, afraid to hunt for and trust the precarious reaches and toe holds that would get her up just a notch higher. Maybe she should try scaling a wall.

There was a climbing wall at the Y, and this was the day. She hadn’t told anybody she was going to do this. They think it was crazy, absurd reasoning; but it felt so right to her.

As she strained upwards, she heard the voice of the instructor encouraging her, urging her on. “Easy, get your balance, get a feel for it, use your muscles. You can do it. There. Reach higher. Oops, steady. Hold it there a minute. Get your breath. Just breathe. Now reach with you right foot, over a little more. It’s holding you fine. Trust yourself. You‘re doing it. I’ve got you. Don’t worry.”

She did begin to worry then. Trusting herself felt wonderful, but would she be doing this if there weren’t somebody holding the line, saying “I’ve got you.” She took a deep breath, centered, and moved on up. After all, this was just practice, and she was doing fine.