Greenheart Canopy walk at UBC Botanical Gardens
In a fit of brash enthusiasm, I decided to walk the Greenheart Canopy Walkway. From the ground it didn't look that high, and the views, I surmised, had to be spectacular.
After all, when I braved the Treetop Walkway at Kew, I could see all over, even watch the planes coming and going from Heathrow.
Unfortunately, I overestimated the prospect of wide views and underestimated the fear factor. I made it around, but didn't spent much time looking around me or at the ground. And unlike the TreeTOP walkway at Kew, this one didn't go anywhere near the top of the very tall Pacific rainforest trees. The view was much the same up high as it was on the ground.
With one important difference: instead of strolling along wide smooth woodland paths covered with bark mulch, the canopy walker must traverse narrow floppy sidewalks and hang onto flexible rope railings.
I found the experience instructive. I was able to do it, but not really to relax and enjoy myself as I put one foot in front of the other and kept reminding myself to breathe deeply. I'm sure I missed much of the beauty of the scene as kept my eyes high to avoid scaring myself by looking down.
How you do anything is how you do everything, or so many contemporary philosophers say. In the end, I simply had to ask myself. Is this how I live my life?