The Little Skiier Who Could--A Tale Perseverance and Perspiration

Long ago, when mullets were still kind of cool, my friend Rachel and I went through four years of high school gym classes together. Despite having an aversion to the whole experience, I do recall at least being in shape and, for that matter, being in better shape than Rachel.

Oh, how times have changed.

Last Sunday, Rachel and I went cross-country skiing up Cypress Mountain. After getting our tickets, Rachel pushed off on her skis with the confidence and grace of speed skater, regularly stopping to wait for me as I puffed and huffed slowly up the hill behind her.

Along the way, other skiers passed me like Ferraris on the autobahn. Finally, mercifully, we reached the top of the first hill, where I swung back some desperately needed water, and caught my breath.

“Are you okay, dear?” asked a concerned septuagenarian in a jaunty snowsuit.

“I’m fine,” I said. And then to Rachel, “Do I look like I’m about to die or something?”

“Well,” she said, “you do look a bit flushed.”

Knowing this meant I looked like an overripe tomato, I pushed on, and had a great time, until we got to this particularly long and steep hill.

Rachel trekked ahead of me like a penguin returning to the birthing grounds, while I floundered like a flamingo on rollerskates. Eventually, I opted to just incrementally sidestep up the mountain.

About halfway up the hill, this line from one of Frisbee’s books popped in my head. “I think, I think I can, I think I can, I know I can, I know I can.”

And it was true. It took me forever, and I probably looked foolish doing it, but eventually (and not without help from Rachel who traded skiis with me) I got to the top, and then it was mostly downhill from there.

These last couple of weeks, I’ve been despairing about writing. Worried that I’ll never get anything done. That nothing I write will actually add up to anything more than a random collection of scenes and musings. But experiences like this remind me that, as long as I keep at it, and stop measuring myself against all the other writers I know, I will get there…eventually.