I recently went ice skating. I haven’t been since I was in 8^th grade so it took me a little while to get use to the feel of the ice again. I figured it wouldn’t be too difficult for me since I rollerblade pretty regularly.

As I was gliding along it came to me that ice skating (like numerous activities) could be a metaphor for life.

I started out pretty slow, even though on the inside I wanted to zip around the rink as fast as I could I knew that until I felt comfortable I should take it easy.

I then of course opened myself to take direction from a more experienced skater, someone who’d “been around the rink.” My skate mentor showed me how to do cross overs, how to slow down and stop, and eventually how to skate backwards.

Once I knew how, I was ready to put my knowledge into action. So then I went through a period of practice. Practicing what I learned and remembering to just have fun even if I my skills weren’t perfect yet.

As I continued circling the rink it became more and more clear how the best thing I could do was to focus my attention on my own practice. If I let my attention drift and focused on what others were doing I’d probably slip and fall and possibly hurt myself.

As I felt my abilities grow another awareness became clear, I saw how important it is to be focused on your own practice, but also to be very alert to what those in your environment were doing. If you didn’t watch out someone could all of a sudden lose control and take you down with them!  

This almost happened to me, I was zipping along the ice and a little girl crashed and burned right in front of me. Luckily (Labor Under Correct Knowledge) I was resilient enough to lift my leg and avoided a painful collision.