Saturday I skied for the first time in about a year. And before that, for the first time in about five years. This time it was at a place called Stevens Pass, just north of Seattle. Lots and lots of powder. Lots of good remembering from my ski muscles, along with a few achy muscles at the end of the day. It takes a fair amount of work to get ready to ski. Sometimes to the point of wondering why I’m doing this. First run helps me to remember how much I love being out like that. Big open spaces. Fresh air. Movement of body in relation to the mountain.
I love learning through my body. And through play and exercise. It helps me remember important learnings that help me to understand more of the medium of facilitation and consciousness shifting that I’m in in all of my work. There were two particular points that I appreciated Saturday.
First, with all of that snow that continued all day, there were some places where visibility was really low. Though my preference by far is to see the hill, not being able to do so I find heightens my other senses. I had to feel the hill. In my legs. In my hips. Absorb what was coming not because I could see it in advance, but rather, feel it in the moment. This feels like one of those good capacities for leadership today. Feel it in the moment. Not everything can be tracked out front.
Second, was from listening to one of the ski instructors at the top of the run. This was a man that was teaching younger kids how to ski. He was telling them three things. One was how to grip their poles. Two was to bend their arms and the elbows keeping their hands in front of them. Three was the kicker, to lean down hill. Skiing isn’t to be met with a hesitancy. Easier said that done perhaps. It actually becomes easier in the learning and in the relearning later in life. You have to lean in to the piece that gives you movement. You have to lean into what sometimes you feel hesitant to do.
Well, good learnings at a lot of levels here. I’m glad to have had a great day skiing and to remember in my body these learnings.
