Denny, my trusted paragliding guide, literally took me under his wing and gave me an education about the land and shared a different perspective that I would never have known otherwise. Towering over a mile above, with adrenaline suddenly pulsing through my body, I flew past mountains, clouds, alpine lakes, trees and people from so many different vantage points. My spirits matched the heights I was reaching. This paragliding experience marked the end of our trip to Switzerland, yet it wasn’t the end for me because the power from this place will exist in my mind forever. When the option of paragliding was proposed as our final activity, it was a resounding yes for me because I suspected that such a unique experience and the memories that come from it would be unparalleled. 

Before taking off at the top of the mountain, I looked out. My body was shaking, with sweat dripping down my hair and fear creeping down my spine, when the words “Let’s go!” from Denny override my fears. I run of the cliff into what may be impending doom. After a moment of looking at the few carbines attaching me to the paraglide, and seeing my feet dangling over the mile drop, I finally looked up to see the wondrous beauty this place held. The wind blowing against my face, accompanied by the tallest, white capped mountains in Europe, suddenly calmed me. I feel powerful among this incomparable beauty, in the guts it took for me to get here. The valley is lined by mountains, avenues of trees crowd the thick bush, goats and cows graze the grassy mountain sides filled with flowers, and the sapphire colored waters beckon below. 

The power of this masterpiece in Lucerne is breathtaking, and the power of nature overwhelms. Dangling a mile high in the sky I realize the how beauty can change lives, that this is what nature has used its power to make. This place were the power will live on forever in my mind The power of Lucerne’s beauty can only be truly appreciated and understood from above.  

I will never see it, and any other place, in the same way again.