Rose in not an easy going, take things in stride, mellow kind of gal. In fact, we could probably all agree she is the opposite of that. She worries. So, even though she has been taking circus class for a year and seriously eyeing the flying trapeze, she's never done it and wasn't sure she wanted to. And then here we were at camp where every day they had the chance to go to trapeze class.

Luckily, the first day it stormed, so instead of climbing to the top of the palm trees to leap out and swing from the bar high high above the ground, she got to try it indoors a few feet over a mat. All went well. She got her knees up and hung upside down.

Day two she got so scared that she couldn't compute what the instructor was saying and got reprimanded for not listening. The chief instructor of the flying trapeze was the only staff member who was not smiling all the time, and I understand why. His job has some serious safety issues at stake, but between being scared and ashamed, Rose did not want to go up again. And she didn't for several days.

I wasn't sure how to parent this. It's good to let your kids make their own decisions. It's good to face your fears, especially in such a safe context. (The trapeze had safety lines on the kids). Eventually, John told her she should try again.

She was very scared, but it was a great triumph. Not only was she able to listen, but she did the knee hang well enough that she got asked back to try the catch. That upped her to very very scared. My stomach was in knots just watching her face as she sat on the bench and waited her turn.

She did it! (Those of you on facebook can see the video.) She is so proud of the catch she wanted me to show everyone. She wants to turn it into a flip book. She went from being scared to try to being disappointed they didn't invite her back to perform in the evening show. It's going to be one of those touchstone moments in her life. Every time she is afraid to try, she can remember the flying trapeze.