Looking For You All My Life Part 182

she and Spencer went back outside and parted ways.

Maggie then rode the lift up by herself and enjoyed sev-

eral relaxing runs down the slope, suddenly free and unhin-

dered after all those stop-starts that had been required as

she had waited for Spencer to get his "snow legs." Hope-

fully a couple hours of instruction would improve all that

for him; she knew how badly he wanted to develop some

control before any of his friends, especially Sierra, saw him

on the slopes. He'd been such a good sport about the whole

thing, laughing at himself each time he fell and hardly com-

plaining at all. Fortunately his healed foot seemed well pro-

tected by the large, st.u.r.dy boots and hadn't troubled him a

bit.

Just before taking what she supposed would be her last

run of the day, Maggie paused on the top of the hill to appre-

ciate the full mountain view. Planting her skis and leaning

into her poles, she surveyed the thick blanket of white all

around, spotted with dark evergreens. The trees' boughs

were charmingly weighted down by rounded dumps of col-

lected snow, almost as if they were hands holding s...o...b..a.l.l.s.

It was all so incredibly beautiful. And off in the distance, but

appearing so close it almost seemed she could touch them,

loomed the various peaks of majestic mountains along the Looking for You All My Life285

Cascade Range. She breathed deeply of the cold, fresh air

and sighed with happy contentment. Life was good!

She knew she had learned a valuable lesson in the last

week, and yet she had not yet attempted to put the whole

thing into actual words, for it almost seemed too big to wrap

her mind around. But it had to do with simple things like

peace and contentment and trusting G.o.d. Even today, when

Michael had shared from the pulpit, the gist of his lesson

seemed like a bright beacon of hope, pointing directly to

these very same things. Somehow, he had managed to push

through confusion and clutter and cut right to the heart of

the matter, pointing out how, as you pa.s.s through every trial

and challenge and hardship that life presents, the most

important thing was to surrender your spirit to G.o.d-and to

trust him with your whole heart.

Maggie brushed a strand of hair from her eyes and

looked up to the clear, blue sky above her. Certaihly, she

couldn't understand all this yet, and perhaps her mind would

never get it completely down. But somehow she suspected

that her heart would. She breathed a prayer of deep thanks-

giving as she started her descent down the slope, sailing with

grace and abandon, and thinking that no matter what lay

ahead, with G.o.d's help she could face anything.

She found Spencer waiting at the bottom of the hill with

a big grin on his face. "Want to take one more run before

they shut down the chairs, Mom?"

"Sure, if you're you up for it. I thought you might be all