she and Spencer went back outside and parted ways.
Maggie then rode the lift up by herself and enjoyed sev-
eral relaxing runs down the slope, suddenly free and unhin-
dered after all those stop-starts that had been required as
she had waited for Spencer to get his "snow legs." Hope-
fully a couple hours of instruction would improve all that
for him; she knew how badly he wanted to develop some
control before any of his friends, especially Sierra, saw him
on the slopes. He'd been such a good sport about the whole
thing, laughing at himself each time he fell and hardly com-
plaining at all. Fortunately his healed foot seemed well pro-
tected by the large, sturdy boots and hadn't troubled him a
bit.
Just before taking what she supposed would be her last
run of the day, Maggie paused on the top of the hill to appre-
ciate the full mountain view. Planting her skis and leaning
into her poles, she surveyed the thick blanket of white all
around, spotted with dark evergreens. The trees' boughs
were charmingly weighted down by rounded dumps of col-
lected snow, almost as if they were hands holding snowballs.
It was all so incredibly beautiful. And off in the distance, but
appearing so close it almost seemed she could touch them,
loomed the various peaks of majestic mountains along the Looking for You All My Life285
Cascade Range. She breathed deeply of the cold, fresh air
and sighed with happy contentment. Life was good!
She knew she had learned a valuable lesson in the last
week, and yet she had not yet attempted to put the whole
thing into actual words, for it almost seemed too big to wrap
her mind around. But it had to do with simple things like
peace and contentment and trusting God. Even today, when
Michael had shared from the pulpit, the gist of his lesson
seemed like a bright beacon of hope, pointing directly to
these very same things. Somehow, he had managed to push
through confusion and clutter and cut right to the heart of
the matter, pointing out how, as you pass through every trial
and challenge and hardship that life presents, the most
important thing was to surrender your spirit to God-and to
trust him with your whole heart.
Maggie brushed a strand of hair from her eyes and
looked up to the clear, blue sky above her. Certaihly, she
couldn't understand all this yet, and perhaps her mind would
never get it completely down. But somehow she suspected
that her heart would. She breathed a prayer of deep thanks-
giving as she started her descent down the slope, sailing with
grace and abandon, and thinking that no matter what lay
ahead, with God's help she could face anything.
She found Spencer waiting at the bottom of the hill with
a big grin on his face. "Want to take one more run before
they shut down the chairs, Mom?"
"Sure, if you're you up for it. I thought you might be all