Full gas tank: $40
Climbing through a pitch black cave with my younger brother and sister: Priceless.
Have you ever been spelunking? As one of my favorite children's book characters Fancy Nancy would say, Spelunking is a fancy word for walking through a dark cave. All you do is grab a flashlight, a snack, your hiking shoes and you're set to drive to the nearest cave and spelunk!
Last time I went home I went spelunking with my brother, Josiah(10), and my sister, Tess(15). My family lives in Bend, OR where there is a plethora of caves near town; so Tess, Joe, and I grabbed a snack(something about caving leaves you famished, but not thirsty), clambered into my car and drove the 20 miles to Boyd Cave.
Quick caving plug: It's easy enough for kids to enjoy, it's naturally air conditioned(we were pretty cold the whole time), and our particular cave was only about an hour long trek from start to finish.
The three of us had so much fun together. As it happens, Tess and I have the same reaction to being in complete darkness, but for the light of our flashlights. Our depth perception and equilibrium get poned. After about twenty minutes the change is noticeable. When lowering from one rock to another three two feet looks like four, when stepping onto another rock your foot hits it just before you thought it would, and if at any time you stop moving you start swaying. My first time spelunking the cave took an hour and a half to two hours to get through and by the end of it my knees were shaking and I could hardly walk straight or without tripping. With about fifty yards of flat cave to go, I asked the person next to me if I could please hold their arm until we got to the cave. The change was instantaneous. As soon as I took their arm I had control again. Alone I felt like I was slowly falling forward because the ground kept hitting my foot too soon, now I was just walking. Alone I was confused and frustrated by an environment that was taking over, now I stood tall and straight and confident.
Life is to cave as people are to flawed.
Arm is to stability as God is to grace.
We are all of us human. We cannot help but make mistakes, and God knows it 'cause He made us that way. When I do something unwise I tend to beat myself up for it, but every time I hear God say, "You're in a cave of course you're going to fall; just take my arm." And that makes me feel a lot better about the whole situation.
Post Script: "Poned" means "Professionally owned" according to my sister. Here it is in context:
Enjoyed reading your post! By the way, it's spelled "pwned". ;)
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