A lesson learnt from ice-skating

I took a walk to the ice skating ring at Kongens Nytorv after class today. Holding a China box in my hands, I watched the people skate as I filled my body with carbohydrates. The ring at Kongens Nytorv is an open-air one. There were not too many people skating: a father and his two very young daughters, a family of four and some youngsters. Some of them were learning while some of them were there just to enjoy the sport with the level of competency they have already mastered. As I watched the ice-skaters enjoy the sport, my attention gradually turned to focus on the father with the two girls. The girls were probably about three years old and they are twins. With each girl on each side, the father attempted to expose them to the sport of ice skating. He held them by their hands as they learnt to ice-skate. They wore smiles on their faces even though they fell a couple of times. Slowly, they moved on to try out on their own rather then hold on to their father's hands all the time.

It led me to think that sometimes, when we want to help others, we have to let go and let them try out things on their own. Some people have a lucky life in which they always have the safety net of their family or friends emotionally and financially. To some extent, if not given a chance to try out things or go through some difficulties on their own, people may never find meaning in their lives or what they are doing. We need to fall, we need to bleed, we need to reflect and learn from all our mistakes and adventures. A fall does not mean that we will be down forever, it only means that there is something to be learnt and reaped. It simply means a comma used to pause our lives to take a breather and to reflect. So we should all welcome that. It is true that we may be injured or inflicted with pain, sadness, anger and other negative emotions. But I have to say that it is these emotions which push us to our limits that we gain insights to our inner soul.

And we have a choice. SOmetimes, we simply have to say no to others even if they want to help us. We have to take control of our lives and steer it the right way, the way we want to grow up. I wonder just how many people ever thought about that: taking control of the way we want to develop ourselves and not allow others to manipulate our lives. Ultimately, we are the ones who experience the consequences....., is it not?