Editor's Note

Hi Everyone,

It’s great to be back in the Whitsundays after a week in the snow – it’s always exciting going on holiday, especially skiing, but returning home and seeing the sparkling blue sea always reminds me how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful part of the world.

It was my first time skiing the Australian Ski Fields and the first time my six-year-old son had put on a pair of skis. We enrolled him in a full-day ski-club lesson, after which he returned excited and triumphant, his teacher saying he had done a wonderful job on the magic carpet kiddie slope.

The following day, however, we needed to get him up the chair lift for the slightly longer, but equally flat, kiddie run.

Faced with this new challenge and outside his comfort zone, he was adamant he would not go up the chair lift. The more I insisted, the more he started to cry until a full-blown meltdown ensued.

We then spent 10 minutes with me looking like the worst mum in the world trying to drag a terrified child up the lift.

Eventually, we stepped out of the thickening crowd and took a breath.

After much thought I told him that if he ever wanted to see technology again for the rest of his life, he would be coming up the chair lift with me right now.

I have to admit it was not my proudest moment, but it worked.

Within seconds I could see the fear of losing technology give way to resigned fate and the next thing I knew, he had allowed me to help him put his skis back on.

A minute later we were on the lift. Ten minutes later I had him between my legs skiing gently down the mountain. An hour later he was in front of me whizzing down the slope by himself, singing a song and asking to go again and again.

It was one of the best days of my life.

Rach

Quote of the Week: “Don’t live the same year 75 times and call it a life” (Robin Sharma)

‍