Iowa Specialty Hospital

Notes from Steve

January 12, 2017

Encourage courage.  This is kind of a theme for me lately.  As I wrote last week I was skiing with my family last week in Steamboat Springs.*One of the family members hadn’t skied before and despite being drug on the ski lift and completely humiliated, he went back and skied for the next couple of days.  Not great – but he did it.  Awesome.  His courage was admirable.  (He’ll probably never ski again.)  

Four skiers on a slope

So we got out there finally and even though it was gorgeous skiing conditions – basically 3 feet of new powder – it was really cold.  Cold to the point of worrying about frost bite on exposed skin.  Cold to the point of my hair freezing and beverages freezing in the can as you are drinking them.  But on planned vacations there is no way to say no to the rain on the beach and the cold in the mountains, it is part of the almighty deal.  My friend with the sailboat always used to say “no rain, no rainbow”.  How do we take this perspective and apply it to everything we do?  

As we age, our bodies break down.  Businesses do well some years and some years, maybe not so well.  Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we cry … this is life.  If “encouraging courage” in all we do means that we accept fate and get through the pain … because there will sometimes be pain – and instead, focus on the gift, then we will appreciate it so much more.  If we wrap ourselves in the humiliation of being dragged on the ski lift, we won’t be able to appreciate the beauty of the mountain, the potential of a beautiful activity and the camaraderie of friends and loved ones.  Silver linings.  

*I was concerned about the named storm and indeed we were stuck in Minneapolis overnight Wednesday, but made the most of it … nice restaurants, hotel, etc … and got to Colorado for a half a day of skiing on Thursday.  

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