The Keys and the Powder

This week I finally picked up keys to our new place. It's been months of delays, back and forth, packing, but not everything. Lucca's home sick, I've got three international trips in the next month, and my inbox looks like Black Friday threw up.

Last night the sky dumped 30 centimeters of the finest snow we've had in the Pyrenees for a while.

There's a saying among skiers: no friends on powder days. You drop everything. It's similar in surfing and maybe even open water swimming. There simply aren't that many days where the stars align. Nature doesn't wait.

So this morning, standing in our half-packed house with a sick kid asleep upstairs and a laptop full of things that actually need doing, I went skiing.

Zero guilt. Emma just laughed and told me to be back for lunch.

The mountain was nearly empty. A few regulars, untouched lines and about 1500m of climbing. Bliss.

I just finished reading Stephen Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People"- highly recommend it, by the way- and I can't stop thinking about his four quadrants. Urgent and important. Urgent but not important. Not urgent but important. Not urgent and not important.

Most of us live in Quadrants 1 and 3. The urgent stuff. The emails that feel critical but aren't. The calls, the requests, the deadlines that scream at us. Moving boxes feel urgent. Black Friday inbox chaos feels urgent. But here's the thing: most of it is Quadrant 3- urgent but not actually that important.

That powder this morning? Quadrant 2. Not urgent at all, but deeply important. To me that is.

As an athlete you try to plan and recognize windows. Weather windows, form windows, race-day windows. You see rare conditions and you act, because opportunity doesn't negotiate. Miss it, and it's gone.

What Covey helped me understand is that this ability- to recognize what's truly rare and act on it- that's Quadrant 2 living. The kind of thing that makes life worth living but never screams for attention because it's not urgent.

Thirty centimeters of perfect snow doesn't send notifications (the weather apps do but it´s amazing how often they’re off). You quietly hope it happens, and if you're too busy living in Quadrant 1 and 3, you miss it entirely.

Here's what else I've learned: you can't pour from an empty cup. Three trips, moving chaos, sick kid, work I love but that never stops- it all requires energy. And this morning on the mountain? Selfish? Sure. But it´s also filling the cup so I can actually show up for everything else.

The emails will get answered by tonight. The boxes will get packed and unpacked. But I came back grinning, clear-headed, and ready. That's worth something.

As December hits with its particular brand of chaos- shopping lists, deadlines, family obligations, the beautiful madness of the season- hopefully this is a reminder: not everything urgent is important. And some things that seem optional? They're actually essential.

If your version of powder shows up, take it. Not because you're avoiding responsibility, but because sometimes taking care of yourself is how you take care of everything else.

The urgent stuff will wait. It somehow always does.

,
Jan

P.S. If you don't hear from me, I'm on a plane, unpacking boxes, or the mountain called again.