Finding the Positive in the Negative

6:00 am Saturday morning. It’s still dark, very quiet too. Everyone is still asleep and the house is still.

I grab a banana and a travel mug of green tea. No coffee for me this morning. No pancake breakfast. No wine last night. I down a glass of water and head off to get dressed. I pull on my ski clothing (which cost me a fortune, I might add – not to mention the equipment) and I mentally prepare myself for the next few hours of mental torture as I get us to the ski hill for my daughters racing program.

First, I have to wake my daughter from a sound sleep. While she likes the racing once she is at the hill, getting her there is another story altogether. It takes a calm focus to get her dressed, patiently listen to her grumbles, pack a healthy breakfast and lunch and make sure I have all the required gear packed and ready to go. Often we have to brave roads that are dark, snow packed and slippery along the way.

By the time we get on the highway, the sun is starting to peek above the horizon and the world is alive with everything other than people. It’s cold now, but soon it will warm up. We arrive at the hill right on time. I take a deep breath, unload my daughter, get her geared up and wish her luck. Now, it’s time to get myself organized. I bundle up, secure my i-Pod, insert my headphones (shhhh, don’t tell the ski patrol), and make my way to the chair for the first run. Now it is “me-time”.

I have spent the last couple of years always skiing with someone else, finding myself either trying to catch up, or waiting for someone to catch up to me. This year, with my daughter occupied for most of the day, I ended up skiing by myself a lot. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this alone time. With my head phones on, rarely do I talk with others on the chair ride up, and on the ski down I often sing to myself (sometimes loudly!). My energy is my own.

As crabby as I was and as reluctant as I seemed, it all makes sense now. I’m alone in my head, clearing out the fuzz as my skis slide across the snow, making that familiar “swooshing” sound. It’s as if they are whispering encouragement to me as I glide along. I’m pretty awesome, I begin to think.

There are a few reasons why I do this every weekend. The most important of these of course, being that it is important to my daughter. Aside from that, most of my reasons are purely selfish, like thinking I’d drop instant pounds by skiing all day Saturday and Sunday, or that after all that exercise, I would have endless energy and enthusiasm. Those things never really happened, but something else did.

My moods changed, my outlook improved, my habits altered. It was a new winter; a lighter life. There were just as many stresses and worries but I managed to “swoosh” them out of my system with each run down the hill. A whole week’s worth of worry and burden was somehow erased with a day of parallel turns. My vibration lifts.

And then there are the people. Every weekend I meet another “ski” family who, like us, spend the entire weekend at the ski hill. We fantasize about lazy weekend mornings, reading the paper and making waffles, and have our pre-ski saunas and hot tubs planned out in our heads, knowing that a warm hot chocolate, paired with the lingering effects of the high after skiing all day, is a great way to end a weekend day!

Almost through my first winter of being a “Ski Mom”, I’m not svelt and definitely not a pro skier. But, I am healthier, proud, grateful for the opportunity to ski – and happy!

What are you doing with your weekends and what effect does it have on you and how you feel? Are you finding positives in your negatives?