Shivers of fear

Palms feeling clammy and drenched, pulse doing cartwheels, heart close to my teeth, fighting an urge to run back from the edge towards all that is familiar.

That is just from sitting at my desk looking at these photographs of Detroit taken by urban explorer Dennis Maitland, featured on the The Atlantic’s Cities sister-site.  It is an unusual perspective on the city, usually thankfully reserved for steeplejacks and window cleaners, but still a beautiful one – so long as there is a sheet of glass or a computer screen in between me and it.

The photographs are also a timely reminder, as I seek to make my life closer to how I have imagined it – dealing with all the fear and doubt that attends such endeavours – that while the drop may be long, the view is so awe-inspiring that it is all worthwhile.