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Today’s hike was surely a little piece of heaven! What a gift fresh untouched snow is. The snow fell yesterday so I didn’t expect it to seem so pristine on the hill today, but it was indeed. Sure, the trail had been hiked by a handful of others before me, but the little piles of snow on the rocks and fallen trees still held their newly fallen shapes and seemed serene and hushed.
I huffed my way to the top alone again this week and it felt good to sweat and create heat in my body in the midst of the chilly air. When I reached the top and looked down on the village, the sun was beaming and the sky was clear. As I turned around and began my descent, I saw the reverse view of what I had just climbed and my heart unexpectedly filled up with joy. I had my ski poles in hand, since last week had been a bit slippery, and in that moment I felt like a back-country skier, or as though I had just found the perfect secluded tree run that no one knew about. I flew down the trail and imagined skis under my feet. Skiing the trees is still pretty challenging for me, but in that moment I felt unencumbered as I hopped from rock to rock and the leafless tree trunks whizzed by. No wait - I was whizzing and the trees were still! A cold, broad smile was plastered across my face and I felt alive.
I kept cruising down the trail and began to think about momentum, and things in motion. With poles in hand I felt brave, and it was easy to keep a quick, steady, downward pace. I felt my body being drawn down the hill by gravity and my feet and the muscles in my legs would catch my weight and turn me this way and that. Before long, I began to wonder about an Arts in Education project I’ve started to develop and the momentum that is also starting to build there. This idea began as a dream or a wish over 10 years ago, and now I seem to be in a place and time to make things happen, and I’m nervous and excited.
Its amazing how things begin as a small idea or an experience that results in a feeling that lights you up. And then we think about it, we dream about it, we wonder what if. Maybe we tell our partner, friends, family. Maybe we tell no one. And life goes by, bills are paid, vacations are planned, careers change, wars are waged, babies are born… and still the idea lingers, or the memory of the experience patiently waits in the background until circumstances change or the opportunity presents itself for that memory to come to the forefront again.
For me, this idea has recently become a loud, rather pesky and persistent voice, so loud that I had to tell my husband about it. Then a few friends, then a colleague or two. And life works in just such a way that the people I happened to confide in also happened to be the people who could help me continue to move things forward. And the more I talked about it, the more I could feel a bit of energy building around this idea. The excitement and interest from others was adding to my own motivation to keep dreaming. And when/how did this idea based on an experience turn into a dream or even a vision? I’m not really sure and I don’t know if I care. But I do know that, like flying down the hill in the trees through the snow, the momentum of this project feels good, refreshing, invigorating, empowering, and I can’t wait to find out where it leads next!
I kept cruising down the trail and began to think about momentum, and things in motion. With poles in hand I felt brave, and it was easy to keep a quick, steady, downward pace. I felt my body being drawn down the hill by gravity and my feet and the muscles in my legs would catch my weight and turn me this way and that. Before long, I began to wonder about an Arts in Education project I’ve started to develop and the momentum that is also starting to build there. This idea began as a dream or a wish over 10 years ago, and now I seem to be in a place and time to make things happen, and I’m nervous and excited.
Its amazing how things begin as a small idea or an experience that results in a feeling that lights you up. And then we think about it, we dream about it, we wonder what if. Maybe we tell our partner, friends, family. Maybe we tell no one. And life goes by, bills are paid, vacations are planned, careers change, wars are waged, babies are born… and still the idea lingers, or the memory of the experience patiently waits in the background until circumstances change or the opportunity presents itself for that memory to come to the forefront again.
For me, this idea has recently become a loud, rather pesky and persistent voice, so loud that I had to tell my husband about it. Then a few friends, then a colleague or two. And life works in just such a way that the people I happened to confide in also happened to be the people who could help me continue to move things forward. And the more I talked about it, the more I could feel a bit of energy building around this idea. The excitement and interest from others was adding to my own motivation to keep dreaming. And when/how did this idea based on an experience turn into a dream or even a vision? I’m not really sure and I don’t know if I care. But I do know that, like flying down the hill in the trees through the snow, the momentum of this project feels good, refreshing, invigorating, empowering, and I can’t wait to find out where it leads next!
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