Reflections on life from 3600 feet

It is definitely spring. The birds chirping outside my window tell me it is so. The plants sitting in the greenhouse and waiting to be transplanted into the garden tell me it is so. The flowers sitting on my table, which the girls picked for me, tell me it is so. And my allergies definitely tell me it is so.

So why am I writing a post about winter? Because the girls are both celebrating birthdays this month, and I realize how quickly time flies. Nothing illustrates that fact better than our trips, this winter, to Vermont.

A few weeks ago, when there was still snow on the ground, we spent several weekend up at Mount Snow and Okemo. We put the girls in to ski school, then grabbed our dusty ski equipment and hit the slopes ourselves. Literally, in my case, especially after deciding for some inexplicable reason to try snowboarding for the first time.

Mid afternoon we had had enough. The girls were still in ski school, so we took advantage of our freedom to sit still and enjoy a beverage. We found two chairs outside, and while we enjoyed the view and our drinks, we started comparing how different things were now from the last time we had gone skiing together. We started reminiscing about all those years during graduate school when we would spend every weekend in Vermont; skiing, cooking, hanging out with friends. Life was so free then. We would get up at the crack of dawn so that we'd get first tracks: we, who never got up before 8 am when we had to go to work. We spent all day on the mountain; came in and tromped down to the bar with all our ski gear still on, then headed back to the house to cook a great dinner and have a fun evening of card games and hot tubbing with our friends.

Contrast that to this winter; we still got up at the crack of dawn: because that is when our girls get up. And yet we didn't make it to the mountain until 9:30. We didn't park in the far lot, gear up, and walk straight to the lift line; instead, Greg dropped the girls and me off in front of the ski school, and then went to park while I got them suited up. He wandered in just as I had finished dropping them off (signing all the releases, getting my ID, getting their ID's). We made our way to the lodge where we got ourselves ready and then finally made it out to the slopes. A few runs later, and we were done. (Hey, when you are a new snowboarder, falling on you're a** every 2 minutes, one run takes a while and after a few runs you are getting bruises on top of bruises. Enough is enough!)

We commented to each other on the fact that before, in our younger days, Greg used to go off and ski the blacks and the bumps while I meandered down the mountain at my own slow pace, but this time we were enjoying the time sitting together more than the time spent apart skiing. The biggest difference, however, was that at the end of the day we went to see the girls skiing down the bunny slope… and enjoyed skiing the bunny slope with them. Watching Greg take the girls up the chair lift and then ski down with Cosette- screaming the whole way with excitement, practically suspended between his legs- and Juliette barreling straight down the fall line made me appreciate how full my life is now. I remember those old days, but I am blessed for this life I live now.

The girls like to call me their Heart of Joy. In the way of kids, they speak so truthfully. My heart is full of joy.