They make it for me.

One of the ski forums i regularly visit has a thread where everybody has posted their favourite photos from the last few years. Some of them are absolutely amazing... there are so many talented photographers out there, and in my mind, there is no better subject to photograph. Looking at them has made me somewhat wistful though. It made me realise something I hadn't ever really thought about before.

I adore skiing, as anybody who has been within 10 feet of me in the last 5 years (and even most people that haven't) knows. However, the more I do it, the more I realise that it's not ONLY the freedom I feel when I'm out on a snow covered mountain, with nothing to do but point down and fly.

Skiing represents some of the best, happiest, most fun-filled moments, days, weeks and months of my life. Many of those times are due to who I was with: people who have the ability to turn a completely shitty situation into something hilarious.

A few years ago, on my first day of a week's skiing, I fell quite bizarrely and, i'm still not quite sure, but I managed to crack my sternum with my own knees. I was driven by one awesome chick down to the hospital. The doctor knew there was no point in telling me not to ski, so he instead issued me with some panadol and a severe warning to be careful. The rest of the week was spent in enormous amounts of pain, not because it hurt to breathe or move, but because my beautiful friends took it upon themselves to try to make me laugh. Continuously. Now anyone who has ever broken a rib, or heaven forbid cracked their sternum will know, laughing (next to coughing and sneezing) is one of THE most painful activities in which you can partake. However, what I remember from that week is this: heh heh heh heh owwwwwwww. I remember the laughing, and that they tried to make me laugh. I remember everybody taking special care of me, that they woudln't let me cook or wash any dishes, that they wouldn't let me carry my own skis up the millions of stairs to our lodge. I remember that they cared. That i had an awesome week, despite at times being hardly able to move.

People like this are hard to come by. And to be able to enjoy their company in an environment like that, is a blessing indeed, even for an aetheist.