carbonated joy

It’s a snow day.
I’m sitting here watching some neighborhood kids sliding down a little hill behind our townhouse on makeshift sleds. They are sliding on cardboard and plastic trash can lids.
They are so bundled up that they can barely move. They are wrapped up in coats, scarves, stocking hats and wool gloves.
They look like brightly colored, slightly swollen snow monsters as they hurl themselves down the hill.
I love that about kids, when life throws snow in their face, they look for a sled!
Adults don’t do that, we look for a shovel.
Shovels aren’t nearly as fun as sleds.
This reminds me of a story.
You can find some great stories on snowy days!
Diana and I went to school at a little bitty Bible college in Virginia. (It’s where we met, so it is a downright magical place to me).
It is also a beautiful place, especially on a snowy day.
Our campus was in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
One time we got a lot of snow.
We were some crazy college students, still young enough to look for the sled.
There was a large hill right in front of the school…perfect!!
Our friend, Linda, had bought a huge inner tube from a local garage.
Me and my buddy, Mark, asked Linda if we could borrow her super tube. We foolishly promised that nothing would happen to it. We got it and set off looking for some cold adventure.
Mark was on one side of the tube, I was on the other. We pushed off and started to slide down the hill…
BUT WAIT…
There was a guy there that day, who has since became a good friend. His name was Shaun Chalupnik. He was visiting his girlfriend/future wife, Dawn, who is one of the sweetest humans to ever live! Shaun was a burly football player. He was over six feet of hairy muscle.
I was introduced to Shaun when he jumped on top of our inter tube as we started down the hill. (This was a literal icebreaker!!)
Three things happened at that point…
1. We picked up speed considerably… I’m pretty sure we were going about 278 miles a hour.
2. The inner tube exploded! This did not slow us down, it just allowed us to feel every rock and stick we slid over.
3. We went out of control, we went farther than we planned on. We flew all the way down the hill into a barbed wires fence.
It. Was. Awesome.
You can find some great stories in the snow!
What if life is meant to be like a wild ride down a beautiful snowy hill.
You don’t know what to expect and that is the crazy, fun, surprising part!!
You push off and hurl yourself into a uncontrollable future.
It’s ALWAYS more fun with a friend.
Sometimes, you depend on the generosity and grace of friends. (Sorry we killed your tube Linda!)
Sometimes you take on unexpected passengers or challenges.
Sometimes you hit the trees, rocks or fences. You get scraped up. But, you learn that after some healing, scars become the best stories.
At the end you catch your breath (you ever notice that your breath is always easier to catch in the winter because you can see it!). You look back up the hill that you just came down, excited that you made it, and you celebrate with a steaming cup of hot cocoa (preferably with the miniature marshmallows).
A while back, I went on a ski trip and I ended up staying in the lodge the whole time.
I was warm and comfortable and bored.
I left with no stories at all, it was pretty sad.
We were never meant to live in the lodge.
The story is found on the slopes!
So bundle up and find a buddy.
Push off and slide into your beautiful story.