Today, New Year’s Day, was a picture perfect winter day. About an inch of fluffy snow fell overnight. It was mostly sunny, 15 degrees, and no wind. I went cross country skiing in the Arb, this time in the lower Arb along the river. I took my daughter’s digital camera again and snapped a bunch of photos. I’m sort of getting interested in photography, but since I can’t afford it as a hobby right now, this is a perfect way to dabble.
I got into a frame of mind for this SOS before I left the house. I decided to shovel the patio, steps and driveway before I went skiiing, but to not do it in a hurry-up fashion so that I could get it out of the way. I just did it fully alert, treating it as if it were just as much fun as the skiing would be. It wasn’t, of course, but the experience was different. And strangely enough, getting in this frame of mind seemed to heighten the experience of the skiing.
As I got there, a bunch of guys all decked out in spiffy gear were heading out. It occurred to me that I could work on my skiing form, that since I was in good shape aerobically from playing a lot of racquetball, that I could probably keep up with these guys. But then it occurred to me that no, I was going to be a leisurely skier today, that I didn’t need it for the exercise, that I just wanted to poke along and look at the scenery. The camera continues to help me stay in this groove. Because I’m looking for interesting shots, I’m noticing way more than I normally do, even the little closeup stuff that the camera can’t handle. I added some of these photos to my Arb gallery of XCS shots that I started last week.
I planned to ski all the way to the end of the Arb, to the Waterford Bridge, but I was stopping so much to snap photos, it took way more time than I expected to just go a couple of miles. It occurred to me that I didn’t have to go all the way to the end. At the moment I made that decision, I noticed some tracks by a previous skier that were off the groomed trail and I decided to follow them. And, as Robert Frost’s poem seeped into my brain, it made all the difference, as I discovered an area of the Arb that I’d never been before. Some of it reminded me of skiing in Yellowstone a few years ago, with the rolling, open meadows. And then something interesting occurred to me, triggered by passages I’d been reading in the book “How to Have What You Want.”
I thought: “If I was financially well off, I’d probably not be cross country skiing right now. I’d be snowboarding, or I’d have spent the holidays at a fancy lodge up north or in the Rockies someplace where the cross country skiiing would be spectacular. But I wouldn’t be any happier or enjoying myself any more than I am right now. This is heaven, a mile from my house, and it’s not costing me a dime.”
My desire for More was temporarily put in mothballs and I was reveling in Wanting What I Have. It carried over when I returned home. I leisurely made myself some french toast and sausage, and slowly read the newspaper for over an hour. Every once in a while, when I’d take a bite or a swig of OJ, I’d pause to say to myself, “Man, this is tasty.” After I did a few chores, I took a 2 hr nap. Ahhhhh, a good way to start the New Year.