Come visit my web site at www.kristenulmer.com

WHY WE DIG SPORTS


When you have a secret, can you keep it from even those closest to you?

"Yep, like the best poker player."

When you're angry or upset about something, can you hide it from other people?

"Sure, I just smile and keep quiet."

When you're skiing the moguls, can you fake being better than you really are?

Errr, no.

How about rock climbing, if you say you climb 5.12 but it's simply not true, when it comes time will you rise to it?

Not a hairy fingernails chance. Same with baseball, football, golf, cycling, race car driving, all of them.

That's the thing about sports, you can't fake anything. You can't hide from the truth in sports like you can the rest of life. You can't pretend to be stronger, faster, more intelligent, more charming, more sexy than you really are. And so sports, my friends, are the ultimate mirror. A mirror solidly held and no matter how much you try to squirm away, you cannot avoid the reflection.

That's why I choose Sports as Spiritual Practice, as my church. No bullshit. Just living.

They bring us to our knees and little else does...

The Ultimate Path of the Athlete

Sports are the ultimate test. They offer a great mirror. We can fake other aspects of our lives- like we're actors in a movie- but we can't do any such thing in sports. It’s just not possible to pretend to be better than you are while hanging it out on a 5.12 rock climb or in golf tournament. Sports break us down into little pieces, show us clearly our strengths, our weaknesses. They offer us lessons, an opportunity to wake up to what it means to be a human being. But alas, most of us miss these lessons...

The greatest lessons of our lives.

Will you take advantage of these lessons? To become more conscious makes you a better human being, and to be a better human being makes you a better athlete- in whatever way that matters to you. That's good incentive.

In the words of Paul Valery: "The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.”

Skiing Without Fear

This is a blog for www.kristenulmer.com and the Ski to Live clinics.


People ask me all the time, "How did you do it? How did you ski without fear all those years as a pro?"

They want to get rid of their own fear, so they can ski better, of course.

I always answer: "You're asking the wrong question."

The question should be: "How do you embrace fear?"

Much like a whining child, the harder we ignore fear the louder it whines. It simply will not stop yowling until we listen to it. If we listen, instead of being our enemy, it becomes our friend- our warning bell. The one who has our back.

Take it a step further now, and embrace fear not like a friend, but like a lover, and you'll see that it is fear, actually, which creates our passionate for this sport. Without fear there is no challenge, no adrenaline. Without fear, skiing would have little appeal, no fire.

I love fear like I want to love Brad Pitt.

Now THAT makes for good skiing...

Reverend Ulmer

Recently performed a marriage ceremony for two close friends at Burning Man. This is what I wrote/presented. Thought it would be nice to share:



We’re born and very quickly we feel so separate from one another. From the earth. From the universe.

So we spend our lives searching. For what- sometimes we’re not sure, but the search goes on regardless. We come to Burning Man to continue the search, and here, if it’s a good year and our eyes are open, we find.

Find what though?

When we watch the man burn tomorrow perhaps we recognize ourselves, Standing up there, arms in the sky, feeling the power, the magnificence, the knowing of who we are and what we are. And instead of searching for, perhaps we can finally find…

Connection. Not just to other human beings but to our own skin, connection to the ground, to gravity, connection to the earth, the atmosphere, to others, to the sky, connection to the stars, to the universe, to beyond even that which we cannot grasp.

In this place, we can finally, with great relief, experience a collective, universal consciousness and truth- a connection to everyone and everything. The other 51 weeks of the year, you are you and I am me. But here, I am you and you are me. Most people never have this chance.

When two people get married, whether it be in Africa through a tribal ceremony or in India with an arranged marriage, the world comes yet another step closer to the truth, that we are all connected. Just like a butterfly beating its wings in Africa affects a child’s cry in Peru, A marriage at Burning Man effects the murmur of the whole world.

This connection doesn’t have to wait through a two-year courtship though, or even for the guy to get his act together and ask, it can happen in an instant. Imagine a world with everyone in love, where there is no fear or confusion. Imagine a world were you can even tell total strangers that you love them.


***(The following is a ceremony)
Look for a partner, best if it’s a stranger, now stand and look into each other eyes

First person say slowly, repeat after me: “I love you. I have always loved you. And I will never stop loving you.” (second person, same)

Pause for crying, hugs, happiness, celebration***


What you just did is what David and Kelli are doing today. Even after two years, they’re still strangers, even after 50 years, they’ll still be strangers, but they’re willing to love, always love, and never stop loving. Not just for themselves and their own lives but for all of you as well. To change the murmur in their lives, but to also to create something so much more for human kind.

Now take that energy and on the count of three I want you to send it, arms extended palms first with the word BANG to David and Kelli, and also past them out onto the playa, and beyond.

My hope is that the whole world will feel it.

Three, two, one

Poems for Ski to Live Guests Alta '08

For:


Mel- Who one day, will say with authority “I’m not sorry”

Patrick- our beloved new, old friend

Abby- knowing when to turn around and come back tomorrow

Sabrena- who laughs with abandon and makes us love her

Laurie- who can’t say penis, but can definitely paint them

Seanie- who speaks like a bunny, but lives like a lion

Robin- holding as trophies, her rolladex in one hand and her heart in another

JJ- Who will drop everything when it’s right

Amanda- drawing us in with but a wink

Jennifer- who keeps our ball rolling, even when we’re asleep

Paul- as we whistle at you from inside the Zen Center

Andrea- feeding the world with devotion and pursuit

Nancy- who trusts unconditionally- you know you can write me about anything, anytime

Mike- linear he walks, yet directly into the arms of his waiting father

Ron- who has come so, so far in this journey, and is awake

Lisa- now speaking her truth with strength and certainty

Sharon- who deserves a standing ovation everyday

Karl- who is not afraid to reveal secrets

Al- turning the dust of his past into gold

Peter F- exploring heart ache through the path of love

Melanie- Merry Christmas to you, wife, friend, and human being

LeeAnn- No matter how long it takes, you always graduate

Leah- smiling, all the while, passed out on the floor

Amy- who finally had sex with anger

Tom- whom I miss more than words can say

Larry- the bright, beautiful pain in the ass

Peter K- as he starts a revolution

Chris- who dares, oh no, to share the truth while skiing.

And to Kristy- will you be my assistant?

Poems for Ski to Live Guests Park City '08

To:


Sharon- who hopefully will want the clinic back again and again to Park City

Ori - who maybe found his boost

Danelle - who WILL go to the Olympics

Andrea- who always had her wings, but might ditch her job

Lauryn- who taught us spiritual breakthroughs and psychotic episodes are the same thing

Kelli- who with every swirl of those PMS hips can bring the playa to it's knees

Bill Wilson- with his head in the stars both brings STL to Park City and seduces his wife on river trips

Christy Wilson- who falls for his charm, will have a baby in 2 months, hopefully while wearing red toe nail polish...

Jason- who will tell the world

Bill McGinnis- who deserves to be famous

Karl- who's tan is so deep it goes 100 feet deep into the earth

Ray- who feels like the luckiest guy in Park City

Rob- who saved my ass when I didn't know how to find the right instructors

LeeLaa- who will never, ever need to be told to *&%$ off

Jonathon- who, if you go visit him, will teach you all to fly like superman

Gina- who is not in touch with spirit- she IS spirit

Chris- who will say no to the next person who asks

Vicki- who wasn't born a red head, but fixed that

Cindy- the pearl living in the oyster

David Sr- who is truly my friend

David Jr- just do it- for one year, what the heck, be a ski bum

Marie- may you always eat ice cream for dinner

Heather- anyone from new hampshire is like salt on the earth

Amy- who will say yes to the next person who asks

Jeanette- who wants to be of service

Guy and Susan, who wake up every morning to a sunny day, even when it's raining

Adam- the most likely to suddenly shave his head and build an ashram in Vegas, baby

Steve- may you always build your barns lop sided


No Mistakes? Not a Chance. Namaste