Skydiving Surprise!

So Kindra decided to surprise me for my birthday with skydiving!!  So, so epic.  Kindra absolutely holds the  gold metal for best adventure wife ever.

A little background....I used to watch my dad skydive at Perris Valley all the time when I was a kid.  After the divorce, he hit a hefty mid-life crisis and decided to find release and freedom in a free fall jump from the heavens.  My brother and I would sit and watch in the Bomber Cafe, enjoying A/C and snacks, while my dad would load up in a twin prop airplane and skydive to his heart's content.  I always found my dad's courage inspiring :)

Decades later, with my 27th birthday at hand, I passed word to Kindra that I too wanted to skydive, in an expression of adventure and freedom.  At the center of my motivation was not only my dad, but a Mark Twain quote, stating "most men die at 27, but we bury them at 72."  It spoke to me.  I believe most twenty something men in our current culture do die inside a bit, perhaps if only to their passions, to their desire for adventure, to their masculine and childlike spirit.  And I don't want to be one of them.  I want to continue to awaken the depth of my freedom, meaning, and playfulness as I age, even as responsibility increases.  So skydiving became the symbol of my declaration: to live fully, not holding back (hence also our travels to the world coming up next month!)  I hope to describe my journey of living fully in more detail in later blogs.

Below is the video from my jump.  The first few minutes is an ad for Perris Valley, but the rest is pretty great.  Enjoy!!