The Mustard Seed

The story of my start to skate goes like this – a random joke with my daughter; a friend suddenly deciding to skate; my daughter sharing the joke with her coach; hearing a piece of music that I wanted to skate a program to and finally convincing my friend that I would support her mad whim if she supported mine!  It was a series of completely random, out of the blue moments. But, yet it wasn’t; not really.

See my skating dream started as a kid watching figure skating on TV. We would write the dates of any televised events on the calendar to be sure we wouldn’t miss them. After each show, we would strap on the socks and skate on the wood/tile floors. We were pretty good – meaning no one was ever injured in our floor skating.

Then I had a little athlete that needed a sport that allowed her to progress or not at her own level without waiting for her peers.  As luck would have it, a rink was opening near us. It seemed like the perfect outlet.  Once she was firmly hooked, I realized that I could very easily start living my girlhood dreams through her.  I NEVER wanted that so I started taking lessons. I learned a few moves. I did a show and a competition. Then I decided some dreams belong to childhood and moved on.

But that little seed of an idea – an adult Stacey skating – never really died. It went into hiding. Sure enough once we moved to Florida, I found myself back on the ice. Once again, I did a couple of lessons and then put it away again. Mustard seeds are tough stuff. Because my dream still didn’t die. It just waited for the right moment.

Finally, the moment came. My little athlete was grown. My budget no longer had to support her sport. My time was not only my own but wide open. So I made a joke with my daughter; a friend suddenly decided to skate; my daughter shared our joke with her coach; I heard a piece of music that I wanted to skate a program to and this time the seed was growing into a tree! 

See that dream propelled me to lose weight (to skate better); to start exercising (to skate faster, better and with more control); to form new friendships (adult skaters at TWO rinks). I tell everyone who will listen that skating changed my life.  I mean it! I am in better shape at (cough) 41 than I have ever been!

I have spent months wondering why this time was different. I wondered what inspired me to act this time. Why I was able to make this HUGE commitment to skating now. But then I realized that this thing, this dream has been growing a long time. I was just lucky enough that it didn’t die while it waited for the right time to grow. No, I was not lucky; I was blessed!

By the way, do you know that the mustard seed is the smallest seed but the biggest tree? You should see how big my dream tree is!