I’m shuffling to the door in a line that locks in my commitment. The engines roar and the smell of fuel is in the air and I can feel my heart pounding in my chest like a freight train.  When I reach the door and the wind catches my face, the world looks like a playset with buildings, cars, and landscape features. I lean through the door and the vastness of the air wraps around me like a blanket and pulls me from my comfort zone. Suddenly the noises and smells of the plane are gone and I the wind whistles through my ears like a song. I get caught in the moment and forget to begin my timing, so I begin at four-one thousand, five-one thousand ...

After what seems like several minutes I pull the ripcord with all I have. As the chute deploys the slowing of my decent feels like my puppeteer is suddenly pulling me upwards with a great force. As I float to the ground’s surface, I have great clarity and a sense of peace. When my feet hit the ground all I can think is “I want to do that again!”

This is a moment from my life at the China Lake Naval Base. At its start, the day was hot and dry, a seemingly dull and insignificant day in the middle of the Mojave desert. At its end, one of the memorable days in my life.

Moments in time are the building blocks of our lives. Some are good, some are great, but they all combine to make us who we are. The thought for today: like the adage “stop and smell the roses” - 'Enjoy the little things in life because one day you'll look back and realize they were the big things.’

Claire is the Director of Individual Giving for Special Olympics Wisconsin.

Special Olympics Wisconsin (SOWI) provides year-round sports training and competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage and experience joy while participating in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, Special Olympics athletes and the community.