Sledding and Hiking Goals

This morning I woke up and opened my curtains to find that the sky and mountains to the east and north were very pink and gold.  It was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful.  The mountains are almost always beautiful.  This morning they were majestic, heavenly, beckoning, rosy, golden, ethereal.  I love the mountains and I always have.  They are part of me, and my family and they are a sacred escape, a place of refuge, just as they were to the Savior in the New Testament and to prophets of the Old Testament...and even the Book of Mormon.  If I cannot go to the temple, the mountains are my next thought....

Today is the day after a wonderful Valentine's Day.  It really was a good day, filled with love.  I ate way too many delicious chocolate covered strawberries.  I love the ones Ryan buys from his work.  They are simply the best I've ever tasted.  It was a good, celebratory day.  And today the boys are feeling even better...healthier and further on the other side of the dreadful flu.  I am grateful.  I am feeling a little tired and a little cloudy in my thinking....but as I was looking at the mountains I felt some real clarity.  I felt very clearly that I need to get back to hiking.  

I hurt my foot two years ago hiking with William's class.  And my foot doctor ordered some really expensive tests such that I feel nervous to go back to him....that and he stuck a giant needle in the top of my foot.  But....my foot hurts when I walk.  That makes walking not so fun.  That and then the whole heart (probably Rheumatic Fever) episode this past October have made walking mostly prohibited.  But when I looked at those mountains....I just need to get back up there, and I need to take the boys with me.  They are all old enough to do some serious hiking.  They are all in better shape than I am.  I want the mountains and hiking to be a significant part of their lives.  

So now...what will it take to get started?

I need to get my foot feeling better.  I need to make sure my heart is all better.  I need to start small and do little hikes to start with.  I need to find out which hikes around here will be the best for beginners.  I need to not be afraid to skip a week if I need to, but still have the goal of weekly hikes.  I definitely need to avoid the all or nothing mentality that has crippled me in the past.  I need to be unafraid to create a new habit in my life and in the lives of my boys.  

And I want them to start taking piano lessons again....that one's going to be a little more expensive!