A few weeks ago, I wrote about our family’s first adventure on the ski slopes. We went again this weekend, having been one other time in between. As if often the case in this whole parenting thing, skiing has become so much more than just skiing for us.

You see, Katherine took immediately to skis, showing some signs of being my father’s granddaughter. My father was a passionate skiier, a man happier on skis than almost anywhere else. When I drove through snow on a late night in Lubbock, Texas all those years ago, I knew that Dad had died. Why else would snow being falling in Lubbock. Never really, before or since, have I experienced a sign like that. But I digress.

The point of all this is that Katherine appears to be a natural skiier. Her big sister, on the other hand, is not. The first day, Caroline’s skies crossed continually. She had a nearly impossible time standing still and an even harder time moving without falling. I was thrilled and beyond impressed that first day when she fought through the entire lesson to the end, determined to finish. I was even more impressed when she asked to ski again.

The next time we went, Katherine and Caroline continued the trend. Katherine left the bunny hill to venture on to a chair lift and down a bigger trail while Caroline stayed behind. This was not easy for Caroline, the big being left behind by the little. So needless to say, when she finished her lesson that day and asked to ski again, I was shocked and happy.

And then this weekend, Caroline was rewarded for her determination, her drive, her ability to see the long term benefit of learning how to ski through the short term embarrassment of it being so hard. She left the bunny hill behind and moved onward to the bigger trails, chair lift and all.

I hope as Caroline moves forward in life that she remembers these early days of skiing and the power of believing in your ability to work through something that is hard. Great things will continue to come to her if she only remembers…