As I rolled around the rink next to my beautiful baby boy, I had an epiphany. Skating is like life. Well, the life of a Mom, anyway...
When we first started out, maybe a year ago, going skating, I would have to hold his hand the entire time, pulling him back up when his feet would roll out beneath him. I would coach him on how to keep his feet steady and how to bend his knees, or hold his hands out in front of him to maintain balance. He would gradually let go of my hand, proudly saying "Mommy, I can do it myself!" Then, just as soon as he say that, he'd fall....flat on his back. Rubbing his little behind would remind him to hold onto Mommy's hand a little longer.
Today, he is skating well...not fast or completely free of falling, but well. I skate beside him. He falls occasionally, and it hurts that I couldn't catch him in time. But he's okay, and he wants to keep going because he enjoys it. Sometimes he wants me to stay close behind to catch him when he falls or be there to rub the pain away. I cherish these moments. When my old skating muscles are tired and I can't go another round, I wave as I go off the rink...
thinking this is what it will be like to send him off to college....10 years from this May.
"Train up a child in the way he should go, when he is old he won't depart from it."
Proverbs 22:6
Proverbs 22:6
