I never participated in a trust fall as a team building thing – mostly because I don’t trust people, but also because I’ve seen Gretchen Wiener hit the floor in Mean Girls. I can’t help it that I’m popular.
Funnily enough, there’s a girl in a wheelchair doing the trust fall in that scene, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
I’ve had to learn to trust people a lot more since my accident. Also living in Germany. I’ve learned that when one of the women in the Candela choir gets behind me, she’ll take me where I’m supposed to go without me needing to worry about anything. Today, I went to Binzen to sing with my German friends, and it was off to a normal start as Gundi took the handles behind me and wheeled me out a separate door following a man who’d given clear directions to another choir member while pointing to me. We reunited with the rest of the choir for our warm up, and I felt pretty great. I still had very little idea of what was going on – I mean I was at a choir festival, but the details were pretty vague with my limited German skills.
After our warm up, I was sitting with Helen and Dorcas who are both native English speakers when Barbara came to tell us about when we would be singing. I gathered that I’d be needing to get up on the lowest riser – a whopping ten centimeters up.
I immediately had flashbacks to Alex and Patrick first teaching me how to go up curbs in my wheelchair. I had to take the safety bar off, and I told Alex it was the best motivation she’d yet found to get me to learn to walk. Helen would be helping me up, but I didn’t have time to train her on how I would be able to do the maneuver on my own. Instead, I took off the safety bar and hoped for the best with my friend behind me. I made it up the step with no problem and while we sang our three songs, I pondered how I’d communicate to my German friends in a clear and effective manner the best way to remove me from the stage in the crowded hall.
Several of them crowded around me after we took our final bow, and I managed to make clear the safest way would be for me to turn around and go backwards. I put myself in position and heard Elke say, “Ich hab dich” which made me sure I was safe. I popped my casters up and guided my wheels back as Elke held the handles to make sure I didn’t crash.
I didn’t know that I’d be doing a trust fall this morning, but story of my life, I didn’t know I’d be trusting people who didn’t speak English to wheel me around a foreign country, I didn’t know I’d be trusting so many English speakers to help me navigate life overseas, I didn’t know I’d be trusting the generosity of dozens of people around the world to financially support me as I teach missionary kids in Germany. My whole life is a lesson in dependence – you’ve heard me say that before. Today’s trust fall ten centimeters was a healthy reminder of the trust I’ve placed elsewhere.
I trust I’ll walk again. (I also call that faith.) I set a new record for myself as I blazed from the school to the covered bridge (half a kilometer) in significantly better form and time than a week prior. I’m still practicing more time on my feet without my braces, and I’m really fortunate to have my standing frame at home for the summer thanks to Hunter and Michele. My ankles are still really weak, but Margot and Anja seem to think there is something happening in my feet. I trust them – more than most people.
I trust I’ll have good things to share again next week.
