Anne-Marie from the Primary team here.
One of my favourite things to do is go ice skating. Nearly three years ago I started taking lessons, and now I can do all sorts of things I never imagined I would be able to do! I love skating backwards and spinning, and I’m learning how to do different kinds of jumps.
I love skating, there’s nothing else quite like it, when I lace up my boots and step onto the ice it’s like all my worries melt away, it feels like flying! It’s scary sometimes, I don’t want to fall and get hurt! And it’s hard work, jumps take a lot of energy and you have to think about every part of your body to skate well. But it’s so rewarding when I work hard and see my progress over time.
I’ve also made some great friends at the rink. We help each other learn new things, encourage each other when the lessons are hard and celebrate each other’s successes. Some of us even travelled to Milan to watch the Figure Skating World Championships together!
I’m sure lots of you reading this have you’re own hobbies and activities that make you happy, challenge you and that bring great people into your life. So I’m sure that like me, lots of you are also missing your favourite activities that have to be on hold at the moment due to the lock down.
Whatever our favourite activity, I’m sure we’re all missing it in some way.
So what can we do?
Well, while I can’t actually get to the ice rink and skate, there are some things I can do that I think everyone will be able to adapt for your own lives:
- Training and Practise
Skating takes a lot of strength and flexibility – as well as a good growth mindset! So while I can’t skate right now, I can still work out and train my body and my mind. I’m using this time to work on my stretching to become more flexible and finding workouts that will help build my muscles for skating.
How about you? How can you keep active to stay fit and healthy – whatever that looks like for you!
Are there special exercises that will help you in your favourite activity?
Eg. Keepy-uppies for football practise
Following a ballet lesson online
Playing catch to help increase your hand-eye co-ordination
- Staying in touch
It’s not just the physical side of skating that I miss, it’s also the people I skate with. So my friends and I are using Zoom to workout and stretch together. One of my favourite things we do is to see who can go lower in their splits – we all need to keep working on this one! It’s great to hear each other laugh and have each others voices spur us on. Hopefully when we get back on the ice we’ll see the results of our hard work!
How about you? Could you use something like Zoom or Skype to train with your friends?
- Staying Inspired
I love to watch my favourite figure skaters on YouTube. I may never be able to skate quite like them, but watching them reminds me of why I wanted to learn in the first place. I can watch them carefully and see how they jump or spin. I can build play-lists of music I want to skate to some day. I can even keep working at learning some choreography that I might be able to use on ice.
How about you? What, or who, inspires you? What made you want to start your activity in the first place? What do you love most about your activity?
It’s hard right now. There are days when not even all this training can make me feel better about missing the ice rink. When those days come I remind myself that God understands how I feel. I remember that God cares about every detail about my life, not just the big things that are going on in the world, but also the smaller things, the things that are important to me. I remember that I am important to God and that I can always talk to him about how I feel. I remind myself that this wont last forever, and that when the time comes, stepping onto the ice will be even more special than before.
How about you? What are you missing the most right now? What could you do at home to stay connected with your favourite activity or hobby?
Could you talk to God about how you’re feeling? How might God encourage you?