Sledding

January 9, 2019

Close your eyes and think of those cold winter days when you were young. It’s not too hard today where the wind chill puts the degrees into the single digits. But you are young, and there is snow everywhere, and no school. You eat breakfast and instead of lolling in front of the tv, you put on warm clothes, snow pants, a winter coat, boots, scarf, hat and mittens and run outside.
Your sled, saucer or toboggan is waiting and you join all the other kids for Winter fun. On a normal day, you find the largest snowbank in the neighborhood and take turns sliding down. Sometimes it was four or five feet high.
But there are those rare days where your parents take you to the local park where the hills are massive and so many kids slid down already that the surface is hard and shiny and slippery. You set your ride down, get on and kick off. It’s like flying...especially when you hit those bumps and fly up and sometimes off. Your face burns from the cold, your fingers tingle with frostbite and you can’t even feel your toes...so you pick up your flying carpet and drag yourself back up the hill and do it again; and again; and again.
When you are done you are cold and tired and ready for the warmth of home, homemade hot cocoa (not instant but the stove cooked, constantly stirred kind) and time to talk and recount the excitement of your day on the hill.
I still think of those days when I look down the embankments on roads or the highway. I still remember how my teeth and face hurt from too much cold and too much laughter. Even today, when I am outside in the bitter cold, I have pain in my fingers and toes from not knowing when to come in when I was younger. And as I think about those days I know one thing.
 It was worth it!