Tonight we went out as a family to our neighborhood community commons and went ice skating. The City of Millcreek really deserves some praise for building a beautiful place for the community to gather, share human to human time together, eat great food, and have fun activities to do.
Something magical happened on the ice tonight, our youngest son got to experience gliding on ice. For about 40 minutes straight he was smiling, high-fiving people, putting his arms up in the air and cheering, and just experiencing total joy.
He’d turn around and look at me every couple minutes and just yell “go fast!” And then cheer me on with “Ya! Ya!” as he pumped his fists in the air.
There is something so magical about the way children experience joy in those moments, when they experience a feeling they’ve never experienced before. I remember vividly when my oldest son first figured out riding a two-wheeler. We were at this park with a little basketball court, old school round steel post hoops with the curved backboards with the orange outline and square.
It nice he nailed riding in the grass we pushed him down this little sidewalk that gently sloped down onto the court. Once he got on the smooth cement and figured out turning he just rode and rode and rode for like an hour.
Huge smile on his face. Unencumbered joy. You could tell it was just the way he was experiencing the floating movement of being on a bike and connected by the rubber to the road and effortlessly rolling.
Ice skating and roller skating are similar - it’s just more efficient human powered movement. It FEELS great to just glide.
Often times I wonder to myself:
Why don’t I put a higher priority on experiencing new feelings?
I should treat myself more often to the “experience candies” of life. I should try harder to make them a more regular occurrence.
Far too often they take a back seat.
For tonight I’m going to cherish the joy I got to share with my family. I’m going to lock the memory down of how stoked my son was, and bask in that feeling you can into really get from your own offspring feeling that way and getting to share it with them. I’m so grateful.
With love and deep appreciation,
-Andrew