At this moment I sit on a small deck looking down the valley at snow covered peaks and green pine, The sky is bright blue and cloudless. A Cuban Cigar is giving off a favorite aroma of mine. My muscles are revealing their age after two days of incredible skiing down steep terrain, navigating a few bowls, and following Darla off trail. There is a smile on my face as I think about what a great time this has been of reconnecting to things that matter, like the beauty that surrounds me, times of relaxation, and the love of that most special person in my life. Today the things that await me back home don’t seem to matter all that much (except for five other people who share my last name).
The most pressing things at the moment are how to finish the remaining food in the fridge, what time to take a walk, where to take go to take some creative pictures that might someday be mounted and hung on a wall, and if I should pick up a book and read a little. This is our wind down day, a few remaining hours until we return to what has become our busy lives.
I’ve been trying to think of how I will describe our time to those that ask. But how do you describe a sense of inner peace, a feeling of re-connectedness to yourself? I could talk about the things we did, or the conversations had, the warmth of the sunshine as we rode the lifts, or the feeling of the cold on my face after falling in deep snow. How do you explain laughing and smiling, and the fun of holding hands. Would it make sense to anyone hearing me talk about how being with Darla feels like it did when I first met her and yet at the same time seems so much deeper and richer. Would people understand that even though youth is all around me on the ski slopes and in the bars, I some how like being who I am at 46 more than who I was at 26. Maybe the best way to describe it is just to say, “It was better than awesome.”
The one question I will leave here with is – Why? Why don’t I do this more often? Why is my loyalty more to my job than to myself and to the relationships that matter to me? Why don’t I pursue the experiences, feelings, and thoughts I have had this last week, on a regular basis? It seems that I have a habit of letting things that don’t matter crowd out things that do. So heading back home, that is my new challenge, to keep things prioritized as they should be. To keep my vacation going, or at least the things that I am learning, even when I am no longer on one.
I love how getting away can bring things into focus. It has been a great vacation. I need to start planning the next one.
Chronicles of Whistler II
As we drove into Whistler we were holding our breath. Would the room be nice, would the bed be comfy, would there be enough to do if I couldn’t ski (thanks deep cut on the bottom of my foot), would there be a view. Of course it is dark when we pull in, our plan is to figure out our plan of attack, unpack, and get something to eat. Not necessarily in that order. Having a plan sounds good. We didn’t have one before we left home. We forgot to print up directions so of course we used Google maps. Then we get a helpful email from T-Mobile telling us that we are paying per the megabit for internet on our phones. So, off go the phones. Oh Yeah, there is this thing called Canadian money and exchange rates, might want to know the rate exchange before you cross the border. Remember that stuff in elementary school called liters, kilometers, and other things you didn’t really bother to learn, makes it tough when buying gas or trying to figure out how much longer it is going to take to get to your condo. So a plan of attack sounds good, at least an idea or two. By the way, Condo is awesome, bed not to comfortable, view priceless. Plans are to ride the Peak to Peak Gondola, Zip Line, Check out the Whistler Village, determine which night(s) to enjoy the night life, ski, snow shoe, cross country ski, etc… So there aren’t enough days to do all we want to do. No problem, we don’t do real well following a plan. We really just wake up, look out the window, and decide what we feel like doing. Today, I feel like moving slow and enjoying not having to have a plan.
Chronicles of Whistler
Sometimes everything goes right, and other times it goes wrong. I am waiting to see which one of those times this will be. For the last year Darla and I have waited for this week to come. It is the celebration of our 25th year of being married. In typical Rick and Darla fashion, we are celebrating it almost three years late. That is right on time for us. You would think with all the time to pre-plan we would have our ski’s lined up, the bars and restaurants planned, directions printed, etc… but that wouldn’t be our style, or as my nephew Nate would say, “That’s not the way we roll.” Instead, a last minute meeting at Darla’s work comes up, no biggy, we push our leave day back a day. Taking a shower on Friday, I decide its a good day to slip and cut my foot. Stitches shouldn’t slow us down to much or mess with our plans to ski. Despite it all we are getting excited. Whistler Canada here we come. Hope all the Olympic crowds have gone home before we get there. Hope there is snow on the mountain, Hope it is a great time of reconnecting with each other. Its been a long wait for this weekend. So far all the things going slightly wrong have not kept this vacation from being soooooo right.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
