Life and the Ski Slopes

Life is like the ski slopes. When you are starting out you ski the easy green slopes, beginner slopes they are called. These are usually very crowded, not very steep, and actually more dangerous than the more difficult slopes because of the number of people who have no idea what they're doing. Then as you get more confident with the way things are going you bump yourself up to the blue cruisers. Some places put mogels (snow bumps) on their blue slopes and still call them blues, so occasionally you get bumps in the road on the blue cruisers. These slopes, are not terribly difficult, but a slope you might not choose to do again. If you haven't yet guessed, I'm a blue cruiser. I prefer corduroy runs on sunny days with no wind. Yeah, how many of those do we really get in life, I mean, in a season?
Finally when you feel ready (and often when you aren't) you hit the black diamonds. There are degrees of black diamonds--the wide open really fast ones, the ones with bumps on purpose, the double black diamond chutes through the trees, and the narrow, bumpy, fast ones. I don't mind black diamond slopes, in fact I routinely do a couple when I ski just to make it interesting. Sometimes I get in over my head and I cuss, sing, or cry my way down. Sometimes I find out that I am having a good time even though the going is difficult. Once I realized I could never repeat my particular path because it would never be the same again. Isn't life alot like that?
For example, green slope: Every day routine chores, watching/listening to your children play well together, getting that coveted parking spot right in front of BiLo.
Normal Blue slope: Taking your kid to the doctor and learning it's just a virus, driving in a downpour, holding your babies during a thunderstorm.
Perfect weather, groomed blue slope: Nothing actually compares to that, so think of the best day you ever had.
Black slope: well, you know, bad stuff.
Anyway, I don't know where I was going with this post, except to say what you do with your life is like choosing how to get down the mountain. Some of us are more cautious, we make tight turns and always ski in control. Some of us just point the sticks downward and go. Others of us take the cat track down. I had just come very close to flying off a very fast, very fun black diamond--and I was smiling about it--when my brother-in-law gave me some sage advice (he's one of those point the sticks down and go guys). He said, "Marla, you spend your whole life living in control. It's okay to get out of control once in a while. Flying is fun."
So, here's to 2010, maybe I'll find myself letting loose once in a while, after all, those double black diamonds can sometimes be fun.