Day 16 - View

I'm taking an online class to help me with my writing. Every morning I get an email prompt about the topic for the day and I write what I can/want, with the intent to go deeper than just the basics and to capture the details of my life.

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I hesitated using this prompt for today since I'm at Snowbird and the view I have this week is vastly different from the view of life I usually have. But I decided to go ahead and write about this view because it has a long history.


I love coming to Snowbird. My parents bought a timeshare here in 1980, when timeshares in the U.S. were kind of a new thing (the Iron Blosam Lodge was only 6 years old). My parents then left for Portugal for 3 years. I was at BYU going to school and so I was the lucky one who also got to come to Snowbird every year. I came with a variety of friends, and sometimes alone. It was great. When my parents moved back to California they took their Snowbird week back and we'd come up and stay with them on occasion. I was married by then and started the tradition of coming with Doug and our children. My Mom doesn't come here anymore, so my brother and I take turns using her timeshare every year.


To me, the great thing about my parent's week is that it is always the same week and it is always the same room, ninth floor. That means for 32 years, off and on, I have been coming to this same room and sitting on this same balcony and looking at this same view for a week. The view of my mountain.


I call it "my" mountain because one summer, I think it was 1981, I was here alone for a few days before some friends were to come up, and I had the idea to hike to the top that mountain. And so I put on my swimming suit and jogging shorts (the better to tan with as I hiked) and my running shoes and off I went. On so many levels that was dumb to do. But you know, I'm also kind of proud of myself for doing that hike without any of today's fancy hiking gear. I didn't even have a water bottle, or canteen, as we used back then.


It took me pretty much all day to get to the top and then figure out how to get down. There was a moment of concern, at the top, when I really couldn't figure out a way to start down because of all the loose rock. That's when I realized  that nobody even knew I was up there! After a few panicky moments (are there wild animals up here??) (why yes, actually) I got my senses back and found a way down on the other side and then hiked around to the front and came down.


Every year at Snowbird I look at this mountain and I remember. I remember my courage. I remember my bravery. I remember my strength. I remember that I can climb the mountains of life. I remember how this mountain lives in me. And when I come down from these mountains and go back to my life, I carry this view back with me in my heart.