Skating Backwards
I spent yesterday afternoon doing something I hadn’t tried in a very long time, ice skating outdoors on a pond. When I arrived at my niece’s tenth birthday party she was playing hockey with a bunch of her girlfriends and a few boys like it was the most natural thing in the world. I envy kids who get to grow up doing that regularly in Canada. The small cove was surrounded by trees and a few other lake houses and it looked like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting.
I was eager to use my new hockey skates which I had recently bought after years of wasting hours searching for rentals during weekend trips to Vermont and Canada. It felt great to have my own pair again, even if they’re doomed to spent the rest of the year gathering dust in the knee wall as part of my growing collection of outdoor gear.
So I skated out to meet the kids, declared myself an honorary member of the girls’ team, and tried to play a little defense.