Freestyling into friendship on Michigan’s Boyne Mountain

One of my most memorable trips was in 2010. It was only our second adventure together, and we were still getting to know one another—our likes, dislikes, fears and passions—but didn’t yet have a name for our group.

For this trip to the Boyne Mountain Ski Resort in Northern Michigan, we decided to embark on a spiritual, vegan fast. During the four-hour drive from Detroit, we talked excitedly about the numerous foods we packed into coolers in the vehicle’s hatch and how creative we would be in preparing vegan meals in our rented weekend kitchen.

I think because of the fast and because we were praying diligently through it, God opened our hearts and minds to
relax, relate and release. Without realizing it, we began forming an unconditional and non-judgmental sisterhood/friendship. We were bonding through laughter until tears freely flowed, and we shared our life stories.

We talked about our upcoming dare, what we thought we were going to do on the ski slopes and later compared that to what we actually did. We were simply hilarious as first time skiers! The four of us zipped-lined through snow-covered mountains, some of us upside down, and skied until the “Spirit of Non-Stop” (an inside joke) flowed no more as we literally plowed through barricades trying to perfect the pizza position and watched 7-year-olds dust us in the snow.

Soon, it hit us. “WOW,” we said. “Something amazing is happening.” We built an unbreakable bond built on service, dares and sisterly love.

© Copyright DARE DIVAS 2016