Skiing and Mountains

Skiing is pretty much everyone's life here at the Fort. While it's not where my heart lies, the few times I've gone out had been fun and I was glad that I went. As I sit in my room looking out the window, I can see skiers racing down the mountain and it just makes me wonder if they ever stop to really appreciate the mountain that God created for them to ski down 5 months out of the year. As I look at the mountains that are covered in snow it makes me wonder what do they look like in the summer when all the snow is gone. Do they turn all multicolored from wild flowers like they do in Alaska, or do they just stay green as the fresh grass grow? Do the skiers who use these mountains in the winter for skiing, also use them in the summer for hiking? Do they really appreciate what God gave them? Maybe it's just that I'm from the north central part of Texas where there are no mountains, so I see these mountains here in a different way than those who are from Salt Lake and get to see these mountains year round. But then again, there are other people here living in the Fort who are not from the Valley and I don't really here them talking about the beauty that they get to see every day from their own window. When I first got here, I was so easily distracted from my job of cleaning the guest rooms because I would just look out the window at the mountains watching skiers race down them and just stand in awe. We would all sit out in the hot tub talking about the beauty of the stars and the sunsets, but no one ever really mentioned the mountains themselves. Coming down the mountain on my first attempt at skiing, I got to see the sunset right between two other mountains. I wished I had brought my camera with me to try to capture to beauty of what I was blessed with, but I know that just like my attempt at skiing that day, I would had also failed at capturing the true beauty of that sunset. I have not been able to see anything else like that since, but I'm hoping that as my skiing gets better, I will once again be able to see that image again, only this time with a camera in my hand. Instead of racing down the mountain as fast as I can, I will be the one who is slow and having to let others pass me. But in the end I will win the race because I will be the one who got to appreciate the entire beauty that will be surrounding me instead of being the one who got the most runs in before dark. So, I'm challenging all the skiers and snowboarders out there who are reading this....the next time you get on your skis or snowboard, don't just hurry down the mountain to see how many runs you can get in or which one of you in the group was the first one to the bottom...instead go a little slower and try to appreciate to beauty that you were given. Everyday the mountains are changing, rather it's because it's freshly covered in powdered snow, or if it's just because there are new skiers making more ski marks down the trails, it's still different and that means a different type of beauty.