Our fourth season hitting the slopes of Jiminy Peak is not starting like the others. I’ll be curious to see how it evolves. The slopes opened the Saturday before American Thanksgiving in my past experience. This year, we didn’t get to glide until the day after Thanksgiving. Still, it’s way ahead of other smaller slopes so I’m very thankful to have anything at all.

Nature hasn’t been very accommodating. This was the view out our window opening weekend.

Thank goodness we have an amazing snowmaking team. Chris made some comment about them giving us nice little white roads to follow down the mountain. He’s spot on.

It felt sooooo good to be back on the hill. When I stand at the base of the mountain, I am filled with a feeling of contentment. I hear the laughter of friends and joyous memories flip through my mind. And when I’m at the top, beginning to glide down, suddenly all is right with the world.

As Chris geared up, I enjoyed checking out the slopes and listening to Christmas music.

We took our annual “first day” photo at the top of the hill, with the windmill behind us. But you can’t see it because it was so foggy. In fact, it was raining. We took three runs then headed inside. Didn’t want to get too sore to go out the next day.

The snow was great, though. Smooth and soft. The kind that doesn’t hurt when you fall. And crazily enough, neither of us fell much at all. It seems the lessons of last year stuck with us.

Saturday was a quite a bit cooler and definitely not foggy so we took the annual pic again. That day the snow was hard so I took it slower than the day prior. There were quite a few people so we just did a few runs again.

The third day was really a charm. Soft snow, most of the people had left for the weekend, and the weather was beautiful. That was good because we knew we were in for a lot of rain over the week. It made us appreciate the time on the slope all the more.

The rain definitely did come. It’s hard mentally knowing the slopes are melting instead of piling higher.

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But yet again, I live a blessed life. As the rain poured down, I was working in the lobby, enjoying this view:

So here are our sad little slopes. Some years, winter starts early then fizzles. I’m hoping this slow start will lead to a steady, snow-filled rest of the season. I see forecasts for 6-10 inches this week. That will help. And now the temperatures are at least back to a point where the snowguns are firing once again.

Be thankful for a breath of fresh air to be alive and well. Allow love and happiness to penetrate throughout your mind and soul. Take time to relax and live in the moment, the now, the present. Enjoy today.”

― Amaka Imani Nkosazana