Yesterday I was up at ESRP teaching.  My afternoon student was a delightful young man - he is strong, very capable of skiing - but suffers from severe anxiety in many situations, including yesterday on the hill.  I skied backwards holding his hands, trying to get him to look at my eyes, and to see my smile. All in the hope to make him feel just a bit more comfortable.

We paused part of the way down the hill to practice some breathing exercizes to try and relieve the anxiety.  As he was breathing, I continued to reassure him that I would keep him safe.   I was in the middle of reminding him that nothing had happened to him this far, and that we were fine.

Then, cathunk....just a foot from my right hand shoulder landed a ski.  Some poor kid lost his ski on the chairlift, which happened to be right over where we were standing. 

Fortunately my student didn't notice, but I thought  #%^$@ !!!!!  If this had hit him or me we probably never would have got this brave young man on the hill again.  Jeepers...