“Be fearless in trying new things, whether they are physical, mental, or emotional, since being afraid can challenge you to go to the next level.”
–Rita Wilson
This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.
It wouldn’t have been Christmas morning if it were not for some particular actions initiated by my father. He was always the glue that held our family together in a way…and the force that drove us to work together, play together and get outside together, which solidified some pretty important holiday traditions.
Now, in general, my dad wasn’t much of a present buyer…until the year he “discovered” Black Friday. It was that year and many years after that he proceeded to wait in lines in the wee hours to buy the latest iPod or something like that, even though he proclaimed he wasn’t into technology.
At any rate, back to Christmas morning. At some point during our present unwrapping extravaganza, he would inevitably leap up with an extreme level of enthusiasm, run out of the living room out to the ski barn, returning with new skis and boots for various members of my family. At this point, there was some eye rolling from all of us kids and my mom may have been a little irritated.
Then, and this is the best part, he would announce that we all should get outside for a ski. I can’t remember a year we didn’t get out for a ski. I’m sure there were a few. For instance, some years snow is scarce so we walked on the trails those years. One year we sledded and fat biked on our small man-made hill, ridiculously and affectionately named Mount St. Anne, after the ski mountain in Quebec and for my mother. Guess who named the hill? 😉
Photo courtesy of my sister, Emily Delamater
This was our last Christmas all together. My father passed away in March. This year as I reflect on our family traditions, I intend to be the force that motivates us to get outside and continue this wonderful tradition. Above all family traditions are best when you celebrate time together, but in my opinion they’re even better when you get outside together!
I’m sure my dad would be ecstatic to know that I asked for a new pair of classic skis this year. I can’t wait to try them out…so hey, Dad, could you please send us some more snow for Christmas?
If not, I guess we’ll have to get the sleds out!
Not to start this post off with a rant, but why not? I mean I love technology just as much as the rest of you, but I remember that childhood was much simpler when we as children didn’t have access to it obsessively and whenever we wanted. Come to think of it, we only had one TV and it featured four channels. But I have no regrets when it comes to that. All I remember is a deep sense of connection to skiing and to this family. The woods were always magical and what better way to explore it than swishing across the snow with skinny boards strapped to your feet?
“The woods were my Ritalin. Nature calmed me, focused me, and yet excited my senses.”
― Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
My sister, Sarah, yes her name is spelled incorrectly above, and I are about to head out into the back field, over gardens laid to rest for the winter, into the woods where our father had cut a series of networking trails through a swamp and a large Pine forrest. We seem pretty eager to get out there and glide across the snow. These are the moments that I remember as a child over and over again. Skiing through the woods, investigating the murky, frozen water of the swamp, creating stories in my head or humming some song frozen in my mind. This is what we did. Cross country skiing and nature were our medicine.
I have this vivid memory of a story my dad told me about the day he converted. He was playing basketball at some elite private school in Western Maine in his Converse sneakers when he looked up and saw a fleet of cross country skiers gliding across the snow through an open door in the gymnasium and he walked off the court and joined the ski team. He never looked back.
This blog is a dedication to his life’s purpose and dedication to a sport that no one else seemed to pay attention to, that the United States didn’t even know about until Bill Koch became a silver medalist in the ’76 Olympics, that most families in Western Maine knew nothing about, but despite all of this he inspired a movement.
How you might ask?
This blog will be about cross country skiing adventures, challenges that I set for myself, techniques and tricks to improve your enjoyment in the sport, and healthy lifestyle tips for getting outside and skiing it to believe it!
“The cross-country skier’s erratic, nonlinear course, through meadow, moor and mountain valley, was tangentially opposed to the up-down-up-down, conveyor belt conformity of the downhill aspirant. He smelled of scorched socks, kerosene and chocolate bars. Like Moses, he went into the wilderness. And became as a nomadic, winter-blooming mini-nation of pop-up Pans, warbling mountaineers, gliding yogins and nature freaks.” -Hal Painter from The Cross-Country Ski, Cook, Look & Pleasure Book
Wilderness Press – 1973
Purpose for this blog:
Get outside. Life is short. Why not try a new hobby that allows you to explore nature, enjoy the company of others, and glide across the snow effortlessly?
Well, as someone close to me once said, “You gotta ski it to believe it!”
Cross Country Ski to Believe It