Episode 107: The precipice moment
Hello Everyone, and welcome to the podcast of the Ordinary Maverick. This is Ajey, your host, an ordinary Maverick sharing real life thoughts and experiences and Maverick tips. If you haven’t hit the subscribe button yet, please do so, and you’ll not miss another episode.
A precipice is defined as a very steep rock face or cliff, especially a tall one. Falling off a precipice is life threatening as we know and it’s dangerous to even go close to one. When we say, we are at the precipice it means you’re in a dangerous situation very close to disaster or failure akin to taking one wrong step forward and falling over. We’ve all at some point in our lives stood at the edge of a cliff, or at least on top of a really tall building and looked down…or attempted to look down. It’s both scary and exhilarating at the same time in a funny way…Right?
And that moment, that feeling…it’s unforgettable. Although if one is scared of heights, then this is not easy to do. But just for one moment, remember a time when you’ve looked down from a height or just felt that you’re standing on the ledge …and think of that moment….the moment I call as the Precipice Moment.
We have several moments in our life that remind us of standing on a precipice, looking down and when just that one step forward plunges you downwards. It’s that moment that I term as ‘the precipice’.
Now I am not wanting us to jump down, ha ha…fear not. But just remember that moment. It stays with you throughout your life. Crystal clear.
We’ve had some precipice moments in our lives through the years as perhaps you’ll have to….all Mavericks have had them. Let me share some of them.
One of these was several years back, our daughter was just 4 years old. Living in Jamaica at the time, our girls were attending a birthday party. Those days the bouncy bounce jumper was a big hit. You know those large bouncies that get inflated and kids love jumping up and down on.
Well, it was like any other evening celebrating a birthday party of a little child. Our girls were excited as all kids are for a party. Reflecting back, I think it was a case of lack of supervision as well as the understanding of the risks and no warning signs that had several kids on the bouncy at the same time, and more importantly, kids of different ages. One of the bigger kids was jumping next to my daughter and my daughter came down and landed with her hand flat down, the bigger kid next to her also came down but right on my daughters hand and that moment is etched forever in our minds. We literally heard the bone breaking and my daughter scream in pain. We knew immediately that she had a broken arm. Just didn’t know the extent of damage. And my daughter …after that one scream, started playing with the other kids once again. She was just holding her arm in an odd way and obviously making sure that it didn’t bear any weight and kept it close. Kids are so resilient. We did realize over the years that her pain threshold was quite high….she’s a brave one.
Well, it turned out that she had indeed broken her arm, both the bones in a clean cut. Being little, there was an option to set it without surgery and general anesthesia but only if she would bear a bit of pain and keep still. We spoke to her and little though she was, she was brave and was given local anesthesia…she held still sitting in my wife’s lap and the doc, who was related to us, someone we stumbled on my chance and that’s another story, set the bones in place with a click. Excellently done. After that she had a cast for several weeks and yes, made the most of all the pampering. Ha ha. She was spoilt at home, at school…all kids wrote on the cast and she was a happy girl. After a few weeks, when the cast came off and an x ray was taken, all was well. The bones had healed perfectly. Today after so many years, she’s absolutely fine. But for us, that moment remains as one of our precipice ones as a family.
While standing on the precipice is perceived as dangerous, I feel that precipice moments in our lives can hold some good memories, too, right? Earth shattering moments like the time you say yes. Yes to your partner for life. Ha ha. It can be a make or break moment, right. Either you’re made for life or then life makes you! Ha ha. That’s on a lighter note.
Speaking of other such moments, I was reflecting on some more…like pressing ‘send’ when you resign from a job or in that same vein, pressing send on accepting one. Both change your life.
Another such moment is when you become a parent. Nothing can ever take away from that moment when your child is put in your arms and you lock eyes for the first time with this life that is forever linked with yours.
But coming back to the ones that are the tough ones, we had another one of those while living in South Africa some years back. Mention South Africa and one thinks of beauty, nature. It’s truly one of the most stunning beautiful places we’ve ever lived in. But and there’s always a but…crime is a challenge. We were given several security briefings and went through all kinds of measures at home and outside. And believe me, we were fine. But like they say, something has to happen at some point, right? But then, the pre prep, warning signals helped in the response.
It was a night to remember. My wife and girls along with my mother in law were returning after watching a movie. And at the first traffic light, that hit happened. My wife recalls that a car came and stopped behind us. My wife was driving, and our elder daughter was sitting in front, with our younger one with my mother in law at the back. A guy got out of the car and walked up to our car on the passenger side and bam,….hit the window of the car on the side where my daughter was sitting, 3 hits and the glass broke. The guy tried putting his hand in and was obviously looking to take the mobile phone or a purse, basically anything that came in his hand. He caught hold of my daughter’s scarf and was pulling it. In the meantime, there was something else at play. My wife for a minute was frozen in shock, unsure what was happening, but as my daughter leaned on her in fright and in trying to get away from the broken window…well, survival instincts set in. And she hit the pedal. She later said that all she could think of was to save our daughters and get out of that situation. Zoomed out of there in a flash…even though the signal was red. Luckily there was no car in front and the road was clear. As she drove off, the guy was forced to pull his hand out of the broken window in a hurry.
The advice of the briefings kicked in. She drove with speed and didn’t take the regular route home…making sure that no one was following them. She only stopped once safely home. They were all shaking and sat in the car for a few minutes with the broken window before getting out and calling the police.
Till today, that first hit, the smash and grab moment, the precipice moment remains a strong memory.
Fellow Mavericks, all precipice moments remain in our memory bank for life. But when one looks a bit deeply, there are some learnings too. Just like when one makes their way to an actual precipice on a cliff, there are signs, warning signs that show that the precipice is close, there are signs in our lives too that lead up to our precipice moments. Think about it, for every such moment, there are signposts that brought us there. And it’s that combination of noting the signposts, reaching the precipice and then you take a decision, take the plunge forward or retract your steps and go back down the way you came. The experiences I shared had their own learnings and made us aware and take care for the future.
But there have been instances where we can see that we’re reaching what could be a precipice moment, and we retract and avoid getting there. And what helps in making us sharper and more aware is being mindful, present and aware. And here’s where the Maverick formula comes in with it’s three components, Go with your gut, be true and fall forward.
We shall speak about the retraction and signposts in another episode. But for today, focusing on the fall forward component of the precipice moment. Once you cross a certain point, there should be no looking back, no regrets. They say life is too short for regrets and I totally endorse it. So once you take the plunge, just move ahead. It’s about faith and trust.
Reminds me of when we are little, there is absolute trust in parents. You would have seen or done it yourself, when we bounce our little ones or have them jump in the air and they do so without hesitation, in full confidence that you would catch them when they come down. That’s trust. It’s the same when you come to a precipice moment in your life. A moment when you feel everything is a bit topsy turvy, when something earthshattering happens and you’re at that split second moment of decision making. That’s the time that you need to just think of that invisible net, the same way that a child jumps from a height with confidence that no harm will come. That’s the way to approach life’s precipice moments, unafraid and confident. And fall forward. Go with the flow and trust in what’s to come. And believe me, while you will remember the moment for life, you will come out of it stronger.
Do keep writing your comments and sharing feedback at ‘theordinarymaverick@gmail.com’ and follow me on Instagram #theordinarymaverick. I love hearing from you. This is Ajey, signing off and wishing you have an amazing day and a super amazing year! Keep well.
This podcast series was put together as a team effort from the Bhardwaj family. Concept, design, title, researchers and reviewers: Ajey, Sanjana, Avantika and Niharika Bhardwaj; Script– Sanjana; Cover design – Niharika. All rights reserved.