I started snowboarding longer ago than I’d like to
admit. Mostly because I still
suck! A few pretty intense
injuries have caused me to board with some degree of fear. I love turning toe side but whenever I
turn heel side I tend to put on the brakes, the fear has created a habit that
is both exhausting and rips the fun out of the sport.
I was just in Breckenridge with a group of friends. One of them was watching me and made an
observation, she told me that I kept putting on the brakes. I knew this, but I was not really doing
anything about it. She encouraged
me to make wide turns and stop putting on the breaks. Sounded easy enough, so I figured why not give it a
try. A few words of another friend
also came to mind as I was trying this out, “You’re not actually going that
fast”. I began working my way down
the mountain repeating to myself, “you’re not really going that fast” and “don’t
you dare put on the breaks” I was improving, and more importantly I was having
fun!
Is this not what we do in our everyday lives? Have past
injuries not created similar bad habits? My bad habits have in similar ways
held me back in my everyday life; my fear has caused me to freeze. I have fallen into the same rut of
braking whenever I find myself in that familiar moment of fear. Well folks, I’m done with it! The mantra of the mountain stands true,
you’re not going that fast, and don’t you dare put on the brakes! Life is far more enjoyable if you step
out of fear and choose to live, I trust that God will lead me and won’t allow
me to go too fast, he will be my brakes.
I don’t believe this means that life will be easy, but I trust that God
will catch me when I fall; he is just like the soft and forgiving powder!
