Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day is one of the most special days of the year for our family. First and foremost, it is because it is Sarah’s Birthday. We are so proud that Momma popped her out on Groundhog Day and we saw her shadow in the sun and enjoyed an early spring. Also, it meant we were heading “up north” from Ohio to enjoy a week of skiing at Boyne Highlands during the annual family/conference ski-week. We always celebrated Sarah’s Birthday at some venue around the Highlands, or in Petoskey with just ourselves, with friends, or friends and family. It was always a special week because of her birthday and the fact that we were in Michigan enjoying the great outdoors. By the end of the week all our cheeks were rosy red from windburn or eczema and the hot tub and our muscles pleasantly sore. For me, the end of the week was particularly painful because I knew I wouldn’t be back to ski that year at the Highlands, and had to go back to Ohio. Now, don’t get me wrong, Ohio Folks are great and so is the State and its Universities, but it doesn’t have Boyne Highlands and my Lake Michigan as my front yard. We are a skiing family (or snow-boarding) and love the snow. Back in Ohio, snow was fleeting, ephemeral and unpredictable. Here, you can really stake a lot of widgets on the fact that you can ski every day starting in mid December and January and February at least.

Well, let’s fast forward to Groundhog Day 2009. Now, we are living in the great outdoors of Michigan and have been getting our fill of cross-country skiing and snow-boarding and started into down hill again. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised when our Sarah asked that for her 16th Birthday we take her to Boyne Highlands to ski. So, we loaded up the truck and headed to Pellston and west on Pleasant View Road and up to the Highlands. It takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes from the house when the roads are dry---pretty good for Northern Michigan standards, and we were there. It was quickly apparent that my Sarah and Jeff were far better skiers than us now. They were doing 3 runs to our 1 and diamonds and double diamonds and leaving us in the dust, uhh, sorry, snow. So, Mom and I headed off to the green circle runs and had a delightful time watching the ski school groups of young children and their instructors go up the lifts and down the hills. It reminded me of when we had our little cherubs up there, learning the ropes and the slopes. But now, they were better at it than I. I was very pleased by that, proud of that and smiled abreast at that. Going up a long lift I reflected that we have given them a great gift, the knowledge and skills and love of downhill skiing and winter sports. They can commissurate with anybody I think. They have had experiences beyond most teenagers-- living in Norway for a month at age 12, auditioning for movies in New York City, skiing, golfing, playing piano and percussion and guitar and on and on and on….More let’s say, than either Mom or Dad had, despite the best attempts of our parents. What gifts they have been blessed with….

But, you know what, no matter how much they reflect their gifts, or out-ski me or surpass me in everything they do, they will never experience as much joy as I. Because, they will probably not have a daughter born on Groundhog Day, who has the most beautiful eyes in the whole wide world----who on her birthday, asked that we do something together as a family that will always be so very special to us. It was her idea, she wanted us to go back to that special place and remember, celebrate, not just her birthday, but FAMILY, us, the outdoors, being together---that special “National Holiday” for us, Groundhog Day. We tried giving her gifts and celebrating her birthday and out doing Sarah---but alas, she out-did us all by reminding us what is most important---being together in a special place, enjoying our physical strengths as they meet the outdoors, family, family, family, our Sarah will always be a missionary for Family---always be the one that comes out and sees the shadow and turns to the sun.