Journey to The Center of The Heart

       It’s snow season!

       For the adventurous and thrill-seekers, and snow-loving, extreme-sports fanatics, it’s the long-awaited time to hit the slopes with their skis and snowboards.

       Not exactly the extreme-sport-thrill-seeker,  I ventured out with my cousins for the first time last year to go snowboarding. I had gone skiing once before with them a couple of years back and I never quite got the hang of the skis and the poles. Suffice it to say I sorely lacked grace on snow, and I realized then that ice, snow and balance were three things that didn’t mix well with me.

       But that didn’t stop me from trying snowboarding. Oh, well, I thought, I only live once. So, with my other cousin, I joined the first-time snowboarder lessons that was offered. While she gracefully and effortlessly snowboarded down the practice slope, I lost my balance, fell and tumbled everywhere.

        Before we finished the lessons, the instructor said that getting up once you fall would be hard so you’ve got to push yourself straight up with your arms, otherwise you’ll start sliding sideways, which is really difficult to stop.

       So I snowboarded a couple of times, er, fell, tumbled and landed on my bum many times to be more accurate but kept going. Then at one point near the top of the slope, maybe because my bones were tired and my muscles hurt, I fell and couldn’t get up! For the life of me, the ‘push-yourself-straight-up’ move just wouldn’t work! I tried and tried but I started slipping and sliding sideways towards the rocks and trees on the side of the slope!

        My arms started shaking from the strain and I decided to sit there and wait till my strength came back. Suddenly a voice called out to me.

       "Trying to stand up?" A woman’s voice pierced through my tired, aching muscles.

       I looked up to the direction of the voice and found a woman in a pink puffy jacket sitting on a rock among the trees on the side of the slope. She was watching over her small son snowboarding on his own.

      "Yes…trying" I said.

       Then she said, "Look up at the sky and push yourself up."

       I didn’t bother analyzing what she had just said, but just did exactly what she told me.

       I looked up at the sky, the bright sun momentarily blinding me and, with my arms, pushed myself up.

       And up I went! I shot straight up and, before I knew it, was standing up straight!

      "Thank you!" I gushed at the woman.

       Then I snowboarded smoothly all the way down the slope without losing my balance and tumbling all the way. It was the first and only time I actually snowboarded the way it’s supposed to look!

       When I got to the end of the slope, a thought seized me: Oh, my, I just received another lesson on life!

       When life gets you down, when you fall and you keep trying to stand up but just couldn’t inspite of all the effort you put in, look up at the sky–seek the Lord, pray and ask for His strength and grace to pull you through. Ask Him to help you do your part in getting yourself up, and He will infuse you with His strength. It’s hard, but just trust that He will pull you up. As you push yourself up, know that God is also pulling you up. You are never alone in your difficulties. You don’t have to rely on your own limited strength. Surrender yourself into His hands, instead.

       I am reminded of a song from my SFC community that just captures the essence of the incident. The title of the song is "God Is My Refuge" and the lyrics go:

        "And I will lift my eyes unto the mountains from whence comes my help, from the Lord enthroned on high, He is my rock and my salvation I’ll stand firm."

        Another lesson I got reminded of out of my snowboarding adventure was the constant presence of Our Mother Mary through the woman in the puffy pink jacket. The woman was watching the whole time and offered help when I was down on my rear. Like the woman, Mother Mary also watches over us all the time and is Our Lady Of Perpetual Help. The woman told me to look up at the sky. Mother Mary also tells us all to look up to her Son at all times and seek Him. Her central role as our Blessed Mother, as the Church teaches us, is to point us to Her Son that we may bask in His light, love and glorious Presence, and live in His Way, Truth and Life.

       I truly don’t have to rely on my own strength…I’m not at all as strong as I sometimes make my myself to be. I’m only strong when I look up at the sky and ask the Lord for His strength to push myself up and pull myself through. "For when I am weak, then I am strong." I am strong only through His strength.

       Who knew snowboarding could be such a spiritual experience?