Prior to marrying Ryan, about the most adventurous thing I did was drive the grocery cart on the wrong side of the aisle at the store. That was really living on the edge.
After
marrying Ryan, I started signing waivers. It actually started with A
waiver and then I just kept signing them. He surely must know how much I love
him because I keep signing these things and quoting Scripture and singing hymns
in new places. 😊
Technically,
it started on our honeymoon, when I had to sign a waiver to ride in a tandem
kayak with him. For me, back then, that was really scary. Who knew I’d one day own
a kayak?
But
that day, as a brand new bride, less than a week into being a Shaffer, I was
brave, signing a waiver to crawl into a kayak to sail out into the “open waters”
with my groom.
And
then, a few months later, it was my idea to sign up to go ziplining. It was the
one and only time of life that I instigated bravery. Silly me. I thought it
would be no big deal.
I didn’t
love it. I don’t want to do it again. I didn’t find a hobby in it. It was
terrifying, though I was highly grateful that all but one of the lines started
by running down a hill until the hill ran out – and ended up discovering a hill
appearing again as if by magic. Had I been required to jump off a box in a tree
for all of them…well, I might have failed. The best part of the whole adventure
was getting this picture that remains the favorite of our marriage.
And
then, still before our first anniversary, I signed a waiver AGAIN, this time to
ride a Segway in the Caribbean. I think if I could ride one of these more
often, I’d get pretty good at it. On this day, I was mostly just terrified I’d
fall off the side of the road, which did actually happen to someone in our
group. I was not that person. Ryan still won’t let me live down the fact that I
drove my Segway so slowly that I didn’t hear any of the tour, because I was out
of range to pick it up on the radio. I’m okay with that. You know why? I didn’t
fall off the road.
A
little time went by, and I think I thought we were waivered out. We were not.
Because…you remember the waterfalls, right? Another cruise, another excursion.
My only saving grace was that it was the dry season and we didn’t get to do
half the tour because there wasn’t enough water for the upper falls to be
running. The promised trail around some of the falls was a lie. I had to jump
some of them. I had to be “water taxi” carried from jump to jump. And we didn’t
buy the pictures, which remains the single regret for Ryan from our entire
marriage.
Last
summer I did not agree to whitewater rafting. I agreed to a less invasive
tubing adventure. Must have been dry season again. Nancy from the rafting
company called to say there wasn’t enough water to do that adventure. But for
free, she’d upgrade us to whitewater rafting. Ryan cheered. I cried. And we
bought the picture package.
(For the record, Ryan did tell me even when we were at the whitewater rafting place that I did not have to go if I didn't want to or didn't think I could do it. I absolutely had an out. But I was determined!)
This weekend, I signed another waiver. This time? A UTV tour. I hadn’t even heard of a UTV before. I asked if it’s anything like a UTI. Apparently not. 😉 Ryan was so kind to me and didn’t drive this thing with nearly the gusto he would have chosen. He graciously agreed to last place in line and didn’t pelt me with water from mud puddles. He didn’t tip the thing over. And he didn’t drive as fast as he wanted. I am forever grateful.
Our UTV
heard loads of Scripture, prayer, and even a hymn. And I lived to smile at the
end of it.
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