Cross Country Skiing
Part of living a balanced and joyful life is remembering to take time for yourself and do the things you enjoy. I’m discovering as I become more self-aware that this is a challenge for me. Over the years I’ve been called a workaholic by my family and just this past weekend a stranger asked me or rather after we conversed a bit over breakfast stated that I was perhaps an over-achiever? Both labels might very well be true and if so, also explain the challenge of making time to remember to enjoy life. Given the working mentality in the United States, I’m wondering if perhaps I’m not alone in this hamster wheel work ethic mentality?
However, I have been trying to take steps to rectify this, one being last Christmas when after talking about it for years I suggested and implemented Andy and I getting cross country skis for each other for Christmas. It is not nearly as much fun being the only person to have skis, so it was important that we both received them! Now you might be wondering why cross country when we live in Colorado and have such lovely mountains and ski resorts throughout the state. The answer to that question is twofold; first we are both afraid of heights and for me the idea of skiing down the side of a mountain at top speed is terrifying. I did downhill ski once when I was a teenager at a resort in Ohio and I went the whole way down on my butt, the next time I ended up going down up right but then found myself skiing along the fence because well I’d not mastered the art of stopping and the fence was in front of me! So… not the best track record for downhill skiing.
Cross country skiing on the other hand, has a lot of warm memories for me, which is the second reason we opted for that type of ski. When I was young, my parents bought cross country skis for our little family of three, one Christmas while spending the holiday with my grandparents in Grand Rapids Michigan. We spent Christmas day skiing around their apartment complex. I have another memory of the three of us going to a resort called Ranch Rudolph, I’m thinking also in Michigan (I lived in Michigan when I was a kid) and I have wonderful memories of skiing through the forest with them. This is why I gravitated toward cross country skiing over downhill. Cross country skiing is a great cardio workout which is always a good thing. Another reason I think cross country skiing is the way to go is that if you have enough snow, you can pretty much walk out your front door, slap on your skis and go, none of this two-four hour drive up to the mountains and being stuck in ski traffic when you are coming back down the mountain!
This proved true last winter, whenever we had a few inches, maybe a foot, I’d be out the door skiing around our neighborhood, to the Stanley Market place for coffee or around Central Park. I’m looking forward to doing the same this winter with the goal of adding a weekend ski trip to maybe Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park which will have zero to no traffic and be gorgeous non-threatening mountain views! So there you have it, even if you are a person that has not taken time to live a joyful and balanced life it is never too late to start and even the most ardent workaholic and or over achiever can slow down and smell the roses, or in this case enjoy the winter wonderland of Colorado minus the snowy peaks!
