One of the aspects of self-improvement I'm most interested in working on is my short fuse. There's a couple different things that I think feed into it, but one is a perceived sense of unluckiness that I have with things in the world.

Snowfall and chaos

This is the worst year in decades, and depending on metrics, possibly ever, for Utah snowfall. Of course, it happens to be the year that I decide I want to take some time off to ski. That's all fine, considering it was already fairly clear the snow was bad when I made the decision - honestly the lack of snows in some ways was beneficial, with reduced lift lines, crowds, and a larger focus on grooming / snowmaking.

It is a cruel twist of fate that the literal day I leave to go somewhere else to ski is the start of the best snow of the season here. Genuinely, there's more snow forecasted for today than the total of all the snow I've seen fall in Utah so far. Not only is this unfortunate for my skiing, but it's honestly the worst possible scenario for driving 12 hours up to Canada. Traffic was backed up for a good while on the Utah interstates, and driving in snow is never easier than driving in clear weather.

There were definitely some points where things got a bit dicey with the weather. Google Maps decided to take me down backroads (never use Google Maps if snow is happening) and, conveniently, temps were sub-zero (without windchill) throughout the drive. I had Demon Copperhead on Audible to keep me company, which helped the hours melt away, but I still couldn't help feeling a sense of anger and injustice at the sheer bad luck of it all, the snow both falling and on the ground a reminder of the pow day I was missing and the multiple feet of snow that would be hiting the place I had just left.

I'm still finding it difficult to face this unluckiness with peace. The Stoic mindset is clear with these types of events: if you can't control it, there's no point in being angry about it. The Serenity Prayer, composed by Niebuhr, also suggests the importance of being able to 'let go' of things you can't control:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, \n the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference

Makes sense in theory, harder to internalize when the car keeps beeping at you that the cruise control can't turn on because it's snowing too hard, while you can hear your phone buzzing with people talking about how great the day is at Alta. This is still a work-in-progress for me, but I'm hoping I can continue to grow in this dimension (any reframes or cues that you have found helpful for these types of things are always welcome).