Roller Skates & Life Lessons

Yesterday I went roller skating for the first time in many, many years. A good friend of mine was in town with her kids and we wanted something fun that all the kids could do. And it had to be indoors, it is freezing here. So we went. It was all of the little kids very first time skating. I guess I didn't really think about actually having to get out there on the rink until we were all laced up and ready to go...then I realized I had to risk making a fool of myself and more importantly, the possibility of breaking my neck, while helping two kids try and skate. I'm pretty sure that if my kids were a little older and knew better they would have been embarrassed of me, at least in the beginning anyway.

I loved roller skating when I was younger, we used to skate all over the neighborhood, around our court, up and down the street. We used brooms when we first started out,  for balance. I remember how much I loved that feeling of freedom. Yesterday was fun. We did it...and all lived to tell the story. The kids LOVED it. It was a day of firsts. Not only did my kids skate for the first time I heard a Justin Bieber song all the way through for the very first time. hahhaha. Such excitement. It was fun to see that kids still love to skate, they still played the 4-corners game and I forgot how much I loved those colored lights, how they reflected on the rink and how I used to love to run over them.

We all did much better than I thought we would. Wyatt never needed to hang onto me, Charlotte let me help her the first couple of rounds and then she was off skating by herself. She did not want me anywhere near her for fear I would hold her hand. She wanted to do it all by herself. She's four now, ya know. So I tried to push the image of her cracking her head open on the rink out of my mind and let her go. And she went. They both did. Proud of themselves and enjoying their freedom...what a great feeling.

This year one of the things I am really trying to focus on is trying new things and challenging myself. Doing things I may not want to do but should do, need to do or that I am a little scared to do. I'm not saying that roller skating was one of those things for me yesterday but I am thinking more of my little guy that seemed a little uncertain about going. He had a lot of questions for me; did they have helmets? knee pads? elbow pads? what if he fell? what if he couldn't do it? would Charlotte be able to skate? would I?  would they have skates in his size?  That's my boy, sometimes a little nervous about the unknown, kind of like his mama.

He said he was nervous because he didn't know what to expect but he thought it would be okay.  I assured him it would,  we would all be able to skate and it was going to be fun. He seemed fine with that answer. It was a good little reminder to me of facing little fears, letting go (a little), encouraging others (as well as myself), doing something when that you're not entirely comfortable with/sure of and celebrating little victories. Yesterday was a good day.

I hope you all are having a good week. Tomorrow is Friday, the weekend is almost here! 

We have three more days of freedom until school starts back up. And yes, I am counting.