I recently had the opportunity to go skiing for the first time. At first I was unsure whether attaching metal to my feet to slide down on snow from the top of a mountain was a terrible or very good idea. The astonishing beauty of the surrounding landscape helped me go with the latter.

I was amazed at the amount of people of all ages that come from all parts of the world to do this. Each one at their own level of mastery. There are 7 year old experts and 60 year old novices. There are adaptive opportunities for individuals who are blind or paraplegic.

My experience began in ski school. An instructor taught me to maintain balance, to stop, to turn. I felt good about my progress and got a lot from every part of the process.

Eventually I made it down the mountain. At many points I lost my balance fearing I would crash against a tree or fall down the abyss. At times I stopped thinking and allowed myself to feel my existence within nature.

Once while taking the lift with the instructor, she told me that she always wanted to play an instrument but never really tried because she has no talent. This is something that us music therapists hear quite often. A lot of people actually think that you need to have some magical talent to play music. It is true that there are a lot of ridiculously talented musicians. Some might even be geniuses. But most people who play music are not even professional. You don’t necessarily have to try to make a living out of it. Just like most people here are not even trying to make it to the Olympics. Some take it more seriously than others and some are actually pretty good. But even those of us who spend half the time on our butts can have a meaningful experience.

My next time down I let myself go a little bit more and was able to maintain much better balance. I was able to focus my awareness on the present moment and enjoy the process. Even at 2 miles per hour, on flat ground, the snow still absorbs the sound and the quiet is accompanied by these endless ice cream mountains.