Friday, 9:00pm. I am staying over at my sisters house so that we can get an early start on the road tomorrow as we head up the shore for some skiing.
Saturday, 6:00am. The alarm starts to ring. I turn mine off. I hear Sophie’s still buzzing in the other room.
6:18am. I roll out of bed. Sophie is probably drinking tea, wondering when I am going to get my butt out of bed so we can get out skiing.
6:19am. I wander to the bathroom. On the way there, I notice that Sophie still hasn’t emerged from her bedroom. Nice. Well, the early start thing seemed like a good idea the night before…
7:04am. Sophie and Nate hit the road.
Sometimes life gets full of things that don’t matter. Bikes, grading homework, lesson planning, snapple chat, doing dishes, etc. Don’t forget to put the big rocks in your jar first.
On the way up the North Shore, we stopped so I could show Sophie my favorite waves spot. The waves were crashing up against the cliffs, some reaching heights of around 20 or 30 feet against the shore, spray flying 50 feet in the air, well above the surface of the presiding cliffs.
We kept driving. The snow-laden pine and spruce trees looked like they were wearing shoulder pads as we rolled down the icy road of the gunflint trail. We stopped to ski. Not to train, not to exercise, just to ski. There was no pressure to go fast, no worrying about technique, no goals for getting in shape. Just skiing. Should we check the map? No, we can ski whatever trail lands in front of us.
Later that day, we made it to Tuscarora. After catching up with old friends, Andy and Ada, we made some lunch and then returned to the snow globe outside. I will never be as content as I was this weekend. I got to ski with Sophie! Sometimes, the trails were hard, so we slowed down. Sometimes, the grooming was weird. Oh well. Don’t care. We just talked and ate food and skied for hours and hours. It was like I hadn’t seen my sister in years, except that I hang out with her every weekend. What a great way to live.
Every person needs to figure out what is important. I am lucky to have an awesome sister that I like to spend time with. We share the same hobbies, the same friends and yes, I even share my food with her sometimes. Find what is important to you and invest your time there.
Get Outside and Do Stuff 