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Time was of
essence at this point not only because I was now rapidly progressing toward horse pasture below me, but also because centrifugal force I was starting to experience would soon make it impossible to get my hands to those two handles.
With my hands now securely on handles, I was confronted with a bothersome question, "Now, which one goes first." The wrong order could cause my reserve parachute to deploy into my spinning main parachute which would result in an incurable entanglement.
Fortunately, ingrained training once again took over and I pulled them in right order. First handle on right side which released me from my spinning main parachute followed by handle on left side to deploy my reserve parachute.
This brought on a wonderful experience. My malfunctioning black, teal and magenta canopy was replaced with a bright, yellow never before used reserve parachute. What a lovely sight! And all this by 1,700 feet - plenty of time to spare.
Many years ago, I read a book about challenges and responsibilities of Secret Service agents. One of sad aspects of that profession is that agents who never have chance to validate their years of training by responding to a threat sometimes struggle severely in retirement. They are faced with not knowing - with certainty - how they would respond when faced with paramount challenge their career can deliver. For this reason, agents who have faced such a challenge successfully are admired within culture of Service.
That Saturday morning, I had privilege of facing a similar, life-threatening and I now realize life-defining challenge. I faced what Secret Service agents call "the dragon."
For all of us greater dragon is not external threat, whether it be an assassin's bullet, unforgiving and fast approaching earth or another challenge. The real dragon is self-doubt we carry within us.
For those few splendid moments after landing safely, I was able to put my foot firmly on neck of dragon ... and it felt great.
Keep this in mind next time you are confronted with adversity. On far side of experiences adversity presents, there could be a valuble gift - a renewed confidence and certainty.
(c) 2005, Jim McCormick
Permission to publish or post this article is granted provided copyright is attributed to Jim McCormick and above information about author is included in its entirety.
