This morning I surrendered to the weather.  I didn’t want to. Part of me wanted to bundle up, risk the weather and be one of the only brave souls to show up at the Y for exercise class — if it wasn’t canceled.  But I learned my lesson several years ago when I had what could have been a very bad accident in a white out.  If you haven’t experienced a white out it is when the snow is being blown horizontally and when you hit it, or, more likely it hits you, you are completely surrounded in white.  There is no way to see a thing.  Terrifying and dangerous.

Now I’m smarter.  No more of THAT particular drama.  If I know the weather is going to be bad, I stay put. I whined for a while and then surrendered to the weather.  Plan B.  I took our elderly dog for a walk, he loves the snow, and then came back and slapped on my snowshoes to do the loop in the woods behind our house.

As I carefully latched the bindings and hooked my gaitors (leggings that keep the snow out of your boots) I realized that for 10 years I created DRAMA with my snowshoes!  How stupid is that?  I have excellent snowshoes.  Probably the best brand.  But until this year it never dawned on me to put my gaitors over the nylon bindings that in certain snow conditions clump up with snow.  Now I admit carrying around an extra five pounds of snow on each foot IS extra exercise — but what I realize now was that it was the perfect excuse for me to complain and whine!  How much HARDER I had to work!  Why, oh why, was the snow clumping up?  So involved in my DRAMA over the darned snowshoe clumping thing that unless conditions were perfect, dry snow (yes, there is such a thing), I did not enjoy my hike as much as I thought I wanted to!

Fast forward.  This year I figured out the gaitor thing. I happily did the hour plus route alone.  Only silence through the hemlock, pine and cedar forest.  Only the crunching of my snowshoes and the gentle snow hitting my hood. I smile. No drama.

No drama means that I am actually enjoying myself and this peaceful experience. That I am grateful that it is snowing and I’m alone in the woods. I am happy, content. And allowing in this contentment actually means that I believe that I deserve it.  Yes, I do.

I love Debbie Ford’s book The Right Questions.  This morning I think of this one:  “Will this choice propel me into an inspiring future or keep me stuck in the past?

I take one snowshoe step at a time into that inspiring future (of less drama)!