We recently went skiing as a family over the holidays. We are building a house and living in a small (1 bedroom) apartment with our two large labs. We didn’t really have anywhere to celebrate a traditional Christmas so I decided to take the family to Breckinridge. My husband Bob is more of a beach person but he was outvoted. It had been five years since we’ve been skiing.
I remember the good old days when I was the best skiier in the family. Thank goodness for my husband or I would have gone from first to worst as my athletic sons have now greatly surpassed me in ski skills. They still, however, overestimate my bravery and my abilities. If I listen to them, I sometimes find myself on hills that are harder than I prefer. For those of you that don’t ski, greens are the easiest, blues are next, then blacks and then black diamonds. Ski hills are the only place that I avoid diamonds.
Over the holidays, I listened to my oldest son, Riley, tell me that a particular run at Breck was ‘not that hard’. Those are words that you don’t want to verify after you get off the lift. I don’t like a hill that I can’t see the slope of the hill when you get off the chair lift until you are right at the edge to go down. That is what I found on this hill. I also like to ski across the mountain, side to side and wind down the hill.
However, the week between Christmas and New Year’s on green and blue runs is not the best time to try and traverse a mountain at one of the most popular ski hills in Colorado. There were too many new skiiers and too many snow boarders for my comfort. I’m not being a ‘get off my lawn Karen’. But in skiing, you have the right of way as the down hill skiier, however this is only good in theory if the uphill skiier is good enough to control themselves. This week the runs were full of skiiers that I did not trust not to use me as a stopping post.
Nevertheless, I pointed my skis mostly downhill as I regretted my decision to listen to my usually truthful and intelligent son. However, short of calling the ski patrol, there was only one way home and that was down the hill on my skis.
After I got started, I realized that when I only looked forward a little ways, the mountain didn’t look so steep and the distance down didn’t look so long. It occurred to me, as I slowly made it down a ski slope that had clearly been mislabled a blue, as it was a black, or a purple if there was such a thing, that so many things in life are like this ski hill.
When you don’t look at the whole big nasty assignment, when you don’t consider than you need to lose 50 pounds, run 26 miles or write 40,000 words to complete a book, but instead, I just need to make it across the mountain, it is doable. Then rinse and repeat.
That 40,000 word example, that is real. I just committed to write a book. By the time it is done, they estimate that it will be about 40,000 words. I have always wanted to write a book. I actually want to write several books. On my notes on my phone, I have several ideas, outlines, titles. But I never truly thought I would do it. But now I have an editor, an outline, a timeline and a plan. Do you know what else I have? I have thirteen thousand words done. That is a little over three chapters. It’s incredible. My editor thinks that I am going to finish early. He is also a great cheerleader and an optimist.
I made it down the mountain, of course. What kind of inspirational blog story would this be if I fell and broke my leg or the ski patrol had to come get me afterall? I’m also going to write and publish my first work this year, too. Book it.