Thursday, March 10th, 2011 11:14:51

Life Lessons from the Slope

This week, along with many other Americans, our family is on spring break. After years of beach vacations, we decided to brave something new and take our family skiing. After turning in points for flights, and determining what location might provide the best value, we are finally midweek into our vacation.

Yesterday, as I was rapidly passed by a teenager who was muttering unflattering things about my skiing ability, I realized that our vacation experience has reminded me of several important life lessons regarding learning, instruction, frustration, falling, persistence, patience, practice, improvement and providence.

The last time that I went skiing was more than 20 years ago. I can’t remember many of the details, just that I fell a lot and was terrified of getting off the ski lift, certain that I would fall (which I believe happened quite a few times) and get run over. Despite those memories, this year my husband and I decided that our two children, ages 11 and 9, would have the opportunity to learn to ski while they are young.