Life...a slippery slope!

"Tough times don't last, tough people do!"

Have you ever been skiing? I know the weather outside isn't exactly snow and not exactly skiing weather, but it's certainly cold and wet!

As part of a training course I attended today, the trainer made a reference to a skiing holiday she had been on just a few months ago. All of her talk of skiing and the adventure and challenge of skiing got me thinking about my own experiences of skiing.

I don't know if you have been skiing before, but it really is a great experience. It's certainly a challenge but a challenge worth taking. I definitely recommended it. The feeling you get as you make your way down the slope is unlike anything else. The adrenaline is pumping, your heart is pumping, your whole body is brought to life as you slalom your way down the slope. But don't be fooled. If you are new to it and have never done it before, it's never looks as graceful and easy as on TV.

The endless falls, the times you loose a ski down the side of a mountain, the shriek of people loosing control. It's crazy. But thankfully there are plenty of slopes for everyone; nice slow slopes to the more steep and challenging slopes. I learnt this the hard way.

Growing up, skiing became something of an annual event. No matter where it was, as long as there was snow, we were off. I have managed to ski all around the world; Switzerland, France, Italy even the USA, each time improving my skills. I would never consider myself a pro but I can maintain a pretty good speed.

Now thankfully, ski slopes are nicely signposted and identified using different colours. It's a very easy system. The darker the colour, the harder the slope. So it starts at green, red, blue and then black A.K.A death slope! Easy. No matter where I went skiing, so long as I remembered this rule I would be fine. So I would happily go off exploring slopes, finding different ways down the mountain, on and off the chairlifts, busily anticipating the dash back down to the bottom. Brilliant!

As mentioned already, I had been lucky enough to go to the USA. During my trip to the US I spent the majority of my time sticking to red runs. Runs that I thought I knew best. After repeating the same slopes over and over I started to get a little bored of the usual trail, so I tried something new.

About half way through the holiday I felt a little more confident and had heard from one of the ski instructors standing by that there was a good run located at the top of the mountain. Loads of people had been doing it. It was a nice easy run that simply took you through forestry and past amazing sights of the mountain range. Sounded great. With my new found confidence this would be nothing to me. So I jumped up on the chairlift and made my way up to the top of the mountain.

As I reached the top, I got off the lift and followed the same direction that everyone else seemed to be going in. Surely this was towards the nice easy, scenic route right? NEVER ASSUME!

Now I don't know if they had disappeared, or if I had just missed them, but never once did I see a signpost anywhere. All of a sudden before I had chance to do anything I found myself at the top of a slope facing a black slope. PANIC! Now if you can imagine what skiing down the side of a skyscraper building might be like, that was pretty much the same place I found myself. The slope was the steepest I had ever seen, there was hardly any snow around and plenty of ice. Just below me I could see a man who was being taken down the slope by some ski first aiders with an ambulance waiting at the bottom for him. Needless to say this filled me with confidence...NOT!

What on earth was I supposed to do? I couldn't get back to the chair lift, I couldn't turn back round, there was only one way out of this...I had to go down. I started to point my skis across the mountain so that I wouldn't plummet to the bottom of the mountain like a human rocket. Slowly I made my way back and forth across the mountain, inching down the mountain a tiny step at a time. This was no good. It had taken me about 20 minutes to move down the mountain about a meter. My knees, like jelly, weren't holding me and I simply fell down onto my backside. AH! It hit me. As I fell down the answer was clear - to inch my way down the side of the mountain, on my backside, bit by bit until the mountain levelled back out. Perfect.

Bit by bit I slowly made my way down. It took ages but eventually I made my way to a point that was easier to ski on and eventually reached the bottom of the slope. What a nightmare!

Looking back it was a hilarious situation, but at the time what a disaster!

So I end with this thought.

In life we are often faced with times and situations which seem like a steep mountain in front of us. Completely impossible to beat, far to steep and far to hard to conquer. Just like the black slope I had found myself on, there doesn't seem to be a way out. And very often, there isn't. You can't go back, you can't hide, neither can you can't sit and do nothing. The only way of getting off the mountain is to get down it. Whether you like it or not you have to take it on!

It's the same in life. When we face those mountains that come across our paths, those challenges that stare us in the face, we can't just wait and hope that it will disappear and go away. You have to take it on.

Does it mean you have to jump in straight away with all you have? No. Does it mean you have to get through it as quickly as you can? No. All you can do is a bit at a time. Just like me getting down the slope; step by step, bit by bit you will get over the mountain and find yourself back at a point that you can deal with. And eventually when you do get off the mountain and look back at what it is you have overcome, you will look back and laugh.

Remember, tough times don't last; tough people do! So take on that mountain and show it who's boss! And if you fall who cares! You never know when falling down might just be your answer!

Bywyd sydd yn byw! - Just living life!

RM