That's right! Dannon, Larry and I got up in the wee hours of Sunday morning and made our way up to beautiful Lake Tahoe for some snowboarding, skiing, and falling down. Although I'm now full of bruises, welts, and sore muscles, I had a blast and hope we can go again soon before I forget all the things I learned this weekend.
Here's a beautiful view of the Lake from the top of the Mountain.
Dannon was a great teacher and helped me get back into the swing of things on the slopes.
But I still spent most of my time like this:
Snow baseball!
Learning to snowboard is a great analogy for growth in life. First of all, when one learns to snowboard, it is essential that you lean forward - literally placing all of your weight on your front leg so that you gain speed. Going fast is really the only way to turn and control your board. This, of course, is terrifying! Gaining speed while facing straight down a steep and icy mountain is not exactly comfortable. But in Dannon's words, good snowboarding is trusting the board, letting go and allowing the board to do what it wants to do, I just have to stay on it and ride it out. It was when I lost focus, lost my cool and freaked out by my fear of the speed, that I took nasty falls. I was not being whole-hearted in my endeavors. I took my eyes off my goal.
Also, when you progress to the point of gaining enough speed to turn, you end up taking fewer, but nastier falls. In the whole-heartedness, you end up putting more into achieving your goal. This means you have more to lose should you catch your board on an icy patch or lose your balance. After a couple of these falls, it is so easy to let your fear of the pain prevent you from moving forward whole-heartedly again. You begin to go a little slower, be a little more cautious, hold back. But in this recoiling response, you lose the momentum required to control the board. It's harder to gain skill and become successful when you hold back. The thing about snowboarding is you will take some hard falls - it's inevitable. It is essential, however, that you do not give in to your fear of these falls. You have to get up and continue to lean forward whole-heartedly.
Also, when you progress to the point of gaining enough speed to turn, you end up taking fewer, but nastier falls. In the whole-heartedness, you end up putting more into achieving your goal. This means you have more to lose should you catch your board on an icy patch or lose your balance. After a couple of these falls, it is so easy to let your fear of the pain prevent you from moving forward whole-heartedly again. You begin to go a little slower, be a little more cautious, hold back. But in this recoiling response, you lose the momentum required to control the board. It's harder to gain skill and become successful when you hold back. The thing about snowboarding is you will take some hard falls - it's inevitable. It is essential, however, that you do not give in to your fear of these falls. You have to get up and continue to lean forward whole-heartedly.
ooh, good life lessons here, kimbirdy! so true. i love reading about your life. lucky for you and dannon you have a photographer to go everywhere with you :)
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