Imagine that you're 12 years old again. And you're going on a confidence building trip with school, called "Inner Quest". Set in a forest somewhere. Among the tasks you have to perform is to get yourself out to a platform 30 feet up in a tree. It doesn't sound high up. Until you're going up there... Crawling, walking, or scampering out on a thin cable to get to the platform.

Once out on the platform, the point is to get down again. Safely. By sliding down a pole or abseiling. Or by sailing out over a valley some 60 feet below on a zip wire. But what if you're afraid of heights?? Strike that. But what if you're terrified of heights?

Now picture that you're lying on your stomach on a steel cable. There's a safety harness attaching you to the parallel cable above you. Otherwise you're on your own. You have to pull yourself along the cable on which you're lying to get to the platform. This is called the "commando crawl".

Halfway to the platform, your arms are exhausted. So you lie on the cable to rest, but it's exhausting just to balance yourself. And looking down doesn't help fuel your energy. You need to keep moving. You want to give up! The fellow student and counselor on the platform encourage you to continue. But you can't! Then the student already on the platform begins taunting you. He's known you since kindergarten. And he knows all your soft spots. He's someone who knows how to get you really angry! Angry enough to motivate you to want to reach the platform. So that you can give him a "piece of your mind"!

By the time you reach the platform, exhausted, the taunting student has flown off on the zip wire. You, on the other hand, are now hooked up with another safety harness so that you, too, can zip off. To safety. (Safety?) You stand at the platform's edge and look down. Down. Down. And the counselor tells you that you can step off whenever you're ready. To fly through the forest. Free as a bird! But your feet are cemented to the platform. You're not going anywhere, you've decided. The counselor encourages you to go. You don't go. So the counselor pushes you off that platform!

Blood curling screams escape from your mouth as you sail through the air! Suspended by only a cable. Your body twists so that you fly backwards. Then you think, "Hey, this isn't so bad afterall." Then your body twists around so that you face forward again. "Yeeeeeee-haaaaaw!"  you cry with glee. You're flying! And you realize that you want to do this again! And when you get to the end of the cable, the student you wanted to throttle is there to catch you. (Thanks, Mark!)

Barnacles are like old thoughts, ideas, and habits. They're irritating, yet we just put up with them. But we don't have to. It's better just to let go of them. It's all a matter of having enough faith and courage to let go. And when we do, we find a greater joy. There was nothing to be afraid of, and we wish we had done it sooner...