{"id":3919,"date":"2012-09-24T17:51:28","date_gmt":"2012-09-24T21:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/blissblog\/?p=3919"},"modified":"2012-09-24T18:00:34","modified_gmt":"2012-09-24T22:00:34","slug":"monkey-bars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/09\/monkey-bars.html","title":{"rendered":"Monkey Bars"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars: you have to let go at some point in order to move forward.” C.S. Lewis<\/p>\n

When I was a little girl, I liked to climb things, get dirty, play in the mud, ride my bike, skate, sled,\u00a0 and fly a kite. I also enjoyed playing with dolls, arts and crafts supplies, and\u00a0musical instruments. I immersed myself in the world of words, becoming a voracious reader. In other words, I was a\u00a0pretty well rounded kid. I also felt a need to prove myself. That came from multiple health diagnoses, including asthma and being flat footed and pigeon toed\u00a0 which\u00a0required frequent doctor’s visits, allergy shots, and\u00a0red, clunky looking orthopedic shoes instead of loafers or sneakers like my friends wore. The monkey bars in the playground at Pennypacker Park Elementary School became my challenge course. They were probably no more than 6 feet from end to end, but to me, they might as well have been a mile long.<\/p>\n

The first time I climbed the ladder to reach for the first rung, my heart was racing…”Could I do what the other kids did, moving hand over hand to the end in one graceful swoop?”\u00a0 Nope. After the first few bars, I dropped to the dusty ground beneath it, feeling discouraged. I don’t remember if they made fun of me, but the taunting inside my head was obnoxiously loud. The next time, I went perhaps one bar further and hung there for a few more moments that felt like an eternity. I was so determined to do this that I developed blisters on my hands. I wasn’t about to give up.\u00a0 Not sure how long it took, but eventually I made my way to the other side. Never again could I say I couldn’t do it. Such a sense of triumph!<\/p>\n

Now the thing is, I did have to release one bar before moving to the next one, or I would never have reached the end and my blisters would have grown blisters. How long do we cling to\u00a0distressing memories as if they are still happening? What stops us from relinquishing the cold steel bars of regret, what if’s and if onlies, shoulda, woulda, coulda thinking? \u00a0What if monkeying around was as much fun as swinging from vines in a rain forest jungle or simply playground equipment in a suburban South Jersey schoolyard?<\/p>\n

http:\/\/youtu.be\/JmH9ahaTt7k<\/a>\u00a0Hey Hey, We’re The Monkees<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars: you have to let go at some point in order to move forward.” C.S. Lewis When I was a little girl, I liked to climb things, get dirty, play in the mud, ride my bike, skate, sled,\u00a0 and fly a kite. I also enjoyed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":233,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2,13,19,22,14,4,7,38],"tags":[2136,2253,2254,2251,2255,2252,732,1431],"class_list":["post-3919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-attracting-what-you-desire","category-bliss","category-blissfull-thinking","category-empowerment","category-healing","category-how-to-invite-bliss","category-inspiration","category-re-creating-your-life","category-transformation","tag-asthma","tag-c-s-lewis","tag-challenges","tag-monkey-bars","tag-overcoming","tag-pennypacker-park-elementary-school","tag-south-jersey","tag-the-monkees"],"yoast_head":"\nMonkey Bars - The Bliss Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/09\/monkey-bars.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Monkey Bars - The Bliss Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars: you have to let go at some point in order to move forward.” C.S. 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She has also contributed to several anthologies and personal growth books. Edie has interviewed such notables as Ram Dass, Wayne Dyer, Debbie Ford, don Miguel Ruiz, don Miguel Ruiz, Jr. Marianne Williamson, Grover Washington, Jr. Noah Levine, Shirley MacLaine, Dennis Weaver, Ben and Jerry and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She calls herself an Opti-mystic who sees the world through the eyes of possibility. 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