Taking the plunge

I stood at the edge of the diving platform.
Fear gripped me.
I peered over the edge, down the 20-foot-drop into the pool.
From up here, it looked more like a 100-foot drop.
This was the high dive.
I froze.
I started to make the motion to jump, but I found I could not heedlessly plunge into the depths.
I was shown up by a 6-year-old boy.
"Watch out! Are you gonna go?", he asked.
I not-so-reluctantly let him go in front of me.
He ran and jumped gleefully down into the water.

It has been a while since I've been apprehensive of doing something like that. I'm usually more of a daring type. …maybe I AM getting old!

I couldn't bring myself to step out over the water.

I eventually did take the plunge, but I couldn't understand my hesitance and inability to jump.
Why did I hesitate? Common sense told me that the water was below, plenty deep enough, and all I had to do was jump out.

I did, and it was awesome!

Sometimes faith is a lot like that.

I know there are plenty of analogies about taking "leaps of faith", but this was one of the first times I recently had a fear-type reaction to something I knew was safe.
It was a very real visual.