Skating on Thin Ice

​Ice is ice unless...
it forms flakes.
Pack.                    
    Stack.
Shape it and--
    —smack!
Snow is snow unless...
Spring comes back.
                     from Water is Water
                     by Miranda Paul

​       Skating is not something I’m good at. When I was seven or eight years old, I had a pair of metal roller skates. I tightened them onto my shoes and hooked the key on a shoelace around my neck. I really wanted to keep up with the neighbor kids as they glided around the block, but the smallest irregularity in the pavement would throw me for a loop and land me on my bottom. My mom came to my rescue with a pillow and my dad’s belt. I held the pillow around my bottom and strapped the belt around, fastening the buckle, tight. I wasn’t graceful, but at least it didn’t hurt as much when I fell.
       Many years later, some friends thought it would be fun to go ice-skating. I did not think so. But, being the good sport that I usually am, I said okay. Without a pillow or belt to hold it on, all I had was my pride. After the fourth or fifth try (and fall) I left the ice, alone, still smiling (somewhat), pride intact (somewhat).
       Like Miranda Paul says, water is water until it becomes something else. And we’re all in our own ways, becoming something else. I watch the trees change color and make sure the bird feeder is full. I’m content to wait for another cozy winter to melt into another sloppy spring before summer comes back.
       I wonder what I will have changed into. Probably not a skater! I'll have to find some other way to be graceful!
 
                                                                                                                                                      --stay curious!