#354: Oh, the places you'll go--down the hill!

My friend Liz and I went skiing at Bogus this morning, and I drove, and it was magnificent.

However, the long version of the story is like this:

1. I wanted to ski today all week long.
2. I'm afraid of driving on the road, particularly the down part.
3. This has been worrying me all week. Really, keeping me up at night because I've been so scared to drive. I could drive by myself. I could ask someone to go with me. What if no one wants to come back at noon?....blah blah blah...
4. Last night in church, with no solution that calmed my fears, I realized I could, in fact, ask God to help with this. [sidebar: I do think that God has bigger things to worry about, but this is the problem of the day. My God
   
   is big enough to handle world hunger, war, suffering, and driving on hazardous roads]
5. I asked God for help.
6. At a party last night I mentioned to Liz that I wanted to ski today, just in the morning. She was game! I was so happy!
7. She asked if I would drive. I was so sad.
8. We decided to meet at 7:30 and that I would drive. I believed that this was a way God was telling me to get over my fear, drive responsibly, and go ski.
9. I prayed my way to sleep last night to calm my mind down from dwelling on the impending
   
   drive.
10. This morning I Googled tire pressure then realized I don't have snow tires then texted Liz and asked her to drive.
11. She reported she doesn't have snow tires either, but she was willing to drive.
12. We met. 
13. I drove. What an awesome experience! With Liz in the car I was extra-self conscious about the ever-growing line of cars behind me going up the road. However, she kept assuring me that she, at least, had no problem with my granny speed (not more than 20 mph). She also put up with my anxious outbursts every 5 miles or so. We made it just fine!
14. Downhill was the same exact way! I went no more than 20, pulled over in just about every turnout to let cars pass me, and we made it down just fine.

The moral(s) of the story:

• Anxiety on steals the right now.
• When I can't stop my own anxiety, I can pray like hell.
• I thought I had been going slowly down the hill, but with another person accompanying me I realized this isn't true; I've been trying to keep up with the speed demons on the road on the straightaways which causes me to break which raises my anxiety level and to slide. Going slow, like everyone has been telling me, really does get me down safe and sound!