Snowblind

I spent the first week of the New Year learning to ski and in the prcoess pushed a lot of personal boundaries, physical and psychological. After two half day lessons at the ski school, I decided to sign up for a whole week. Not only because I enjoyed it, but also because I felt that there was a certain challenge involved – and I realised that I am very good at avoiding challenges and staying in my comfort zone. I felt that there is a spiritual/ life training aspect to skiing that was worth exploring. It felt like I was learning something useful about conquering my fears and going with the flow. Ski-ing involves looking where you want to go (your target) rather than where you are going or where you feel more comfortable (on the less steep bit of slope going slowly). Every day the instructor would tell me “Nicholas, look where you want to go and your body and skis will follow that direction. By the last day I started to accept that it was true and was going with the flow (albeit slowly). And I am surprised it took me so long to do so because it is the same truth that Buddhism teaches: “Set yourself goals, move towards them and don’t get bogged down in your day-to-day circumstances”. Someone has probably written a book on Zen and the art of ski-ing. (Tips please?).

So I overcame my antipathy towards ski-ing as being a thing for alpha people with big wallets and egos to match. Perhaps it’s one reason why they get to be alpha people in the first place. It’s highly addictive. Cocaine is not the only sort of snow that empties your bank account faster than you can say “your mother’s a crack whore”. Even on the way home I was calculating whether I could afford another trip this year.