Anyone want to go tobogganing? It is a winter activity I absolutely love but haven't done in many years since I'm afraid I won't bounce the way I used to when I get to the bottom.
As a child I lived just a few blocks from a great park with an awesome hill--perfect for tobogganing. We would bundle up, grab our sleds and race to stake out the best part of that hill. To be the first one down after a fresh snowfall was breathtaking. We would position ourselves securely on the sled and gaze down the path we were about to conquer.
With a push of our hands against the ground we began our descent in a thrilling feat of speed, trajectory and navigating bumps, all as snow is flying in our face forcing us to blink at an exceptionally high rate.
At the bottom of the hill we leapt up, grabbed the sled and practically sprinted up the hill to do it all again. As the afternoon wore on it became more like trudging than sprinting as the snow seemed to get deeper and our snowsuits more cumbersome. But we pushed on. Inevitably at some point you encountered that crushing experience of having dragged your sled almost to the top only to have the rope slip through your snow encrusted mitten, forcing you to watch helplessly as it slides back down the mountain and settle defiantly at the bottom.
Miniature icicles would form on our eyelashes, our noses were soon raw from being rubbed by the back of our mittens, and no pair of boots could prevent our toes from getting cold but we didn't care. We loved the adventure.
The craziest experience I had tobogganing was as a teenager. My sister and I and two of our friends headed to a popular hill on Boxing Day. We were having a great time and someone (I honestly don't remember who) thought we should have one ride down the hill together on one sled.
The speed at which we plummeted was exhilarating, until we hit some sort of ridge which seemed to launch us several feet off the ground. After being airborne for a few seconds we landed with a hard thud. One girl remembers trying to figure out which way was up and down because her head was buried so deeply she thought she was going to drown in a snowbank. One girl was laughing so hard she could hardly catch her breath. As for me? While the other girls had been tossed several feet from each other, I was in a tangled heap wrapped around the toboggan we had taken down the hill.
I was pretty sure the back of my left knee had taken a bad hit and that was affirmed the next day when the bruising and pain set in. Nothing was broken but I ended up on crunches to end the Christmas holidays. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat.
Whether it was a classic toboggan, crazy carpet or super slider--all provided that unmatched thrill of hurtling yourself down a steep incline ready to encounter and hopefully successfully absorb the bumps along the way before gliding to a gentle stop at the bottom, or perhaps getting tossed into a snowbank by speed that got a little out of hand.
Each day we have the chance to gaze at our hills and mountains and determine our adventure. Sometimes we see the bumps in the path; other times they are hidden and we hit them unexpectedly. Occasionally we can absorb the impact while on other occasions we get sent careening in a direction we didn't expect. Sometimes we just have to grab hold of the rope for all we're worth and ride it out. Other times we need to endure the snow in our face, brush ourselves off and get ready for the next stage of the ride.
But always, no matter where we find ourselves on the hill, it's important we stand up, turn around, take a look from where we've come and recognize the need to make the climb once again. There are days we do it with a spring in our step and days when merely putting one foot ahead of the other takes tremendous grit. But it is always worth the effort. And as we navigate our way through the bumps we discover not only the turbulence of being tossed about but also the exhilaration of the ride.
So gear up, fix your gaze and hang on as you tackle your mountain today. That's my outlook.
