Sunday Letter: The In-Between Seasons
Notes on Obsession, Skiing, and the Powder Days to Come
Welcome to the Revelry Collection Newsletter. Today, I wanted to share a story about the in-between seasons. Most people would refer to these seasons as spring and fall. Now it does matter if you ski, golf, hike, bike, sled, or ice-skate. If you engage in an outdoor sport, the seasons seem to take on a new meaning.
Now I am a skier. I love to ski, and when I mean I love it, I am not joking. It is one of my favorite things, behind my faith, family, and friends. But the thing about this sport is it only happens for 4-5 months a year (Can be up to 8 if you live in Colorado). So you have these in-between seasons by default.
Coming out of ski season, going into summer I would feel these post ski season blues, until I found hiking. That became my “skiing”, it had adventure, hard work, and was great to do with friends. Alright we got summer covered. Spring is always a busy season for me and usually by May I have had my fair share of days on the mountain.
That brings me to fall, now here is my conundrum. There is too much snow to hike and not enough to ski. The rain is coming, in the past school was starting again, and it has been over six months since I skied. It makes me go a little stir-crazy.
I know this is a weird time to write this, you must be thinking, at the time of writing this almost every ski resort across the western US-of-A is opening in the next week. Thats very true. So you would think that would calm me down, it doesn’t, it just get me more excited. Maybe for you it is the alpine biking trails finally thawing or the snow finally getting deep enough to snow-machine. Whatever it may be, just know you’re not alone.
These in between seasons have there unique challenges for all of us. I try to embrace it, but the more I try to embrace it, the more I yearn for the thing I am trying to distract myself from. So what do I do? I watch more ski movies, read more books about skiing, check my weather app a hundred times. Probably the stuff you shouldn’t do to keep your mind off of skiing. But hey what am I supposed to do?
I have learned to not let it overtake my life though, to allow myself breaks from the constant thoughts of skiing and snow. I have learned to embrace the seasons a bit more, you know throw some leaves in the air, light a candle in the house, maybe bake some pumpkin bread. I also realize that skiing does not bring fulfillment. It can bring some joy and some good endorphins. It can bond friendships together or tear them apart. I think I realized that I was relying too much on skiing for my own fulfillment and my own identity. It was an unhealthy relationship. The same as an unhealthy friendship, you can’t rely on a single person or thing to bring you joy.
So as I head into this ski season, I take with me the memories of powder days in the past and ones to come. But I also take with me the lessons I have learned. That skiing doesn’t define me, it should add to my life, it shouldn’t take way. But you know there could be worse things to be obsessed about. We are all just learning, it’s that small constant progression that counts.
Maybe I should keep a journal like this throughout the ski season, you know, showing the highs and lows of this sport so many call their own. Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. We will see. After all, life is just one big adventure.
Signing off, Bentley Zylstra (Editor & Founder)