regenerated

My trip to Mt. Shasta was very successful in recreating myself.

Not just in the sense of having fun in the snow and wilderness with friends but a multiple death and rebirth experience so I feel like a new person now in many different ways.

I finally let go of the "I almost died" kind of way of looking at things and returned more to, "Yes. Anything is possible!" kind of thinking that has always been  a hallmark of my life.

So, instead of preparing for death I'm preparing for life now, not only mentally but also emtionally now too.

If I can ski like I did then many other things are also possible and I will be less afraid now to travel more and visit more friends now I see I can survive much more than I thought I could.

I think the real breakthrough came when I crashed through the ice into the lake at about 20 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit air temperature. Have you ever fallen through ice before at any age?

It is a very strange experience first of all, especially for me because I couldn't just jump out of the water because I had skis on which made it much worse. So, at first I was in shock about what to do and called for a friend to help me take off my skis because I couldn't because my butt was under the ice and my skis were above the ice okay. But, after 3 minutes or so I realized that I could die if I just stayed under the ice with my butt like that in these conditions and I had to find or force something else to happen so I wound up forcing my feet to the bottom and standing up. So, now my feet were in cross country ski boots filled with ice water. So, now I wasn't just wet from hips to knees I was also wet to the bottoms of my feet with ice water in 20 to 25 degree weather with the wind blowing pretty hard. This wasn't good and I and my friends knew it. Then because I was entering a form of hypothermia because below the waist I was frozen but above the waist I was still too hot (which was also a good thing that I was still too hot above the waist.)

So, because my brain couldn't work right because of all this going on I couldn't put my skis on and make my bindings attach to the boots right at first. So, now I'm walking through 3 to 4 feet of snow with my cold, wet, frozen ski boots. So, by the time I got back into town and into a bath to prevent frostbite I was pretty altered from the experience. I let someone else drive because I was a little goofy from hypothermia at that point.

But, everything was fine. Another weird situation handled just fine. Once again I survived something I had no idea I could survive before it happened. Another breakthrough in my life!

Regeneration!