Skating in the Starlite

Yesterday I decided that Hazel and I needed some time together, so I took her for a date. :) We had been planning on going ice skating, something she's been asking to do since she was probably 4 or 5, but the ice rink closed at 4:00, so we decided to go roller skating at Starlite Skating instead.

I must say, taking a seven-year-old roller skating is quite the experience! Hazel was quite nervous, but she did really great for it being her first time. At one point, I had the genius idea that she should just hold onto my pants pockets and I could pull her. However when she lost her balance, she pulled me down right onto her lap! LOL! Poor kiddo. --- Actually, I still can't stop laughing about it. She didn't think it was so funny at the time, but as we were leaving she was able to laugh about it with me. :)

Hazel wanted to hold on to the railing religiously and kept trying to "walk" instead of skate. She was trying so hard to either rely on me or on the railing --- which I quickly realized was contributing to her unsteadiness. As we skated around, I couldn't help but think of it as an analogy for how we all are. When we try to rely solely upon other people to hold us up or even "the wall", rather than learning how to balance on our own, we skate through life pretty wobbly. That being said, truth be told, I wasn't entirely steady on the skates either. So after a few turns around the floor, we traded our skates in for roller blades and had much more success. As children, my brothers and sisters, went roller blading quite often --- they feel so much more comfortable to me that traditional roller skates. I was happy to realize that even after almost ten years or more of not putting on a pair of roller blades, I was still pretty good on them. Hazel did much better and seemed to enjoy them much better as well.

We'll have to go again many more times before she really gets the hang of it, but we had a lot of fun trying together. Having uninterrupted time with Hazel means so much to her and it was so great to just talk with her about whatever she wanted to talk about. It was also a wonderful experience to help boost her confidence in being able to do things that are hard or even a little bit scary. I'm so thankful for my Hazel and her wonderful friendship. She is such a fabulous daughter and a wonderful example to me. I love you, Hazel!!