Hello and welcome to a blue-sky, second Saturday of January at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is January 9th.
We are coming off an absolutely fabulous ski trip. If the rest of 2021 goes down the tubes, I can look back at this week in our own blissful bubble and say, "We'll always have that first week in January."
The WAKWIR* tells me he's going to share some ski stories next Saturday. I will be brief so as not to steal any of his storytelling thunder.
Instead, I will share a reflection I had on the slopes about relativism - as in, it's all relative.
Despite growing up in Duluth, I didn't learn how to ski until my thirties. And despite having the least ski experience of my marital dyad, I have been the primary ski instructor of our five kids. Sounds crazy, right? Impossible! Well, it's all relative.
No matter how nervous I personally get with my own skiing skills - as I assess descents and calculate slopes to determine exactly how much the odds are in my favor that I can actually make it down the hill without "biffing it" (as the kids say) - I am able to set all that aside when it comes time to teach the kids how to "make the pizza" and traverse the hillside making "snakes" (or booty turns, or tushy turns, or S-curves; whatever resonates with the particular kid under my tutelage.)
What seems hard is all relative. I was reminded of that countless times this past week. Maintaining control of my own skis and speed become non-factors when I'm focused on trying to help the Third Grader and Kindergartener get safely and successfully down the hill.
The Oldest even joked that "Mom can't do hard things" when she couldn't believe that I was at the Helsinki chair lift over on the more advanced section of the slopes and had just navigated a new (for me) blue square hill (which means an intermediate level, for the non-skiing readers.) I was able to laugh with her because, honestly, I small part of me could hardly believe that I had done it.
What seems hard is all relative when you start the week with a 5-year-old who only knows how to point his skis straight down the hill and continue going straight until there's no more gravity and end the week with the same kid who is now cruising the slopes and the very same blue squares that his mama just mastered the day before.
I think my favorite victory happened Friday night. After countless runs down the easy slopes (green circles) coupled with the ever-increasing traffic of the weekend crowd of skiers and snowboarders, kids and I agreed that we should give the Sarajevo run a go - a blue square - which had almost no one on it. Instead of my normal nervous Nelly, I swish-swished right through the part I consider the hardest just as if it was an easy green. To my amazement, I loved it. When I hit the last steep stretch, this mama kept her cool and coasted to a sweet finish right into the chute to the chairlift for another run. I even impressed the kids.
Think you can't do hard things? It's all relative.
On This Day
Remembering You
Kim
*Wannaskan Almanac Kid Writer-in-Residence
Happy sunless Saturday to you - or is it the shade of the pines?
ReplyDeleteSounds like you all had an "all down hill from here" time on her ski holiday. I remember the days of my own sashaying. Living in Central Wisconsin at the time, the only hill in sight was Rib Mountain near Wausau. From the looks of your posted pic, it seems the claim to "mountain" was much overstated.
ReplyDeleteOne of your best posts, relatively speaking.