It’s not an exaggeration to guess each of them fell close to a hundred times. Sometimes it was met with a good-natured giggle, other times it was met with tears and the declaration of quitting.
But, they kept getting up. And as they did, I watched them move through various stages of getting unstuck: letting go of fear, turning frustration into determination, having faith things would get better, encouraging themselves (and each other) to keep going, and celebrating little victories along the way.
By the end of the day, they were doing it all by themselves. It wasn’t particularly pretty, mind you, but THEY DID IT! At one point I heard my husband congratulate my daughter: “Turn around and look how far you’ve come!”
It occurs to me that we’re all learning how to skate in this life. Every time we go outside our comfort zone, that’s what it’s like: slippery, uncertain, challenging.
But we stay with it. We keep the dream in focus. Over time, the journey gets a little easier, because we get our legs beneath us.
And, after a while, we look back and see just how far we’ve come.
As the old Japanese proverb goes, “Fall down seven times, stand up eight.”
Happy skating, friends.
