After eight weeks of being sick, it felt good to even fall on the ice. I had to push myself, but in a good way. The hardest part was forcing myself to put my skates on. Merriam-Webster defines a setback as: “to slow the progress of : hinder, delay.” It’s tough making progress when something gets in the way of it. You feel like you were ten steps forward and all the sudden, you are 100 steps back. A lot has to do with how you approach it mentally. I didn’t feel like skating. I didn’t feel like power walking. I didn’t feel like doing anything. My strength was zapped from being sick. But there came a time when I had to chose to just get up. I had six Covid tests, (all negative); one Lyme Disease test, (negative); and I was on three different antibiotics. At one point, I couldn’t read or type my eyes and head hurt so bad. It is possible, I had a reaction to the air conditioning.
But now that I am better, I had to chose to get back to serious skating. I had to push myself with the help of my coach Cathy, to get passed the, “I don’t feel like it” stage. But she is very cautious and careful. She knows when I have reached my limit. After this last jump, we got off the ice. But you didn’t see the other videos that showed the jumps I did land. Falling is part of the process. Thankfully, I didn’t break anything this time. So, it’s a good fall. But we cannot just focus on the jump I fell on. We don’t need to be so negative, and so hard on ourselves! I did land like four before it.
Also, I have been trying for years to do a scratch spin. I MEAN YEARS!!! It wasn’t until a few months ago that things started to click. Cathy broke the move down for me and we started to go over each piece of the spin. In this video, I started to move my arms up over my head. YIKES! I cannot feel my left leg or my skates. (Due to a head injury – I have Traumatic Brain Injury). I have had to overcome a lot of fear and just do what I want to do. I WANT TO BE A CHAMPION ADULT FIGURE SKATER!!! But also, in the film – I want it to be a beautiful and emotional program. The music – is WOW! I want people to feel the love of God when they see it. I want them to be immersed in God’s grace. So, I have to bypass what obstacles are in my way. Not feeling my skates on my feet, or my entire left leg – you should have seen the bruises on my left leg, where the toe pick from my right skate kept hitting it. I couldn’t feel it. But when I got home – YIKES again. But I persevered! My determination overcomes the falls and failures.
It will take a lot of practice and COMMITMENT, to make this spin the best it can be…but the point is – I am on my way. My jumps – need more work as well. In fact, all of my skating and the program for the film needs work. But it isn’t just on ice practice. It is off ice as well. It’s the conditioning of my body with the weight lifting/strength training/ power walking/ballet/dance/stretching/drinking enough water and eating right. It all factors in. But do I feel like going to Jazzercise? I haven’t been consistent. Some of it is because I was so sick. Which is understandable. But I had to stop the excuses when I did start to feel better. So, I went and only took half the class. But it was still a class. Yet, in speaking with my coach – I know I must commit more to at least twice a week at Jazzercise. If you are ever in the Gettysburg area, you won’t find a more welcoming group then the Jazzercise Battlefield one.
https://www.jazzercise.com/location/jazzercise-battlefield-incentives.
It will be awesome when I can finally pass my Silver Moves in the Field test, and start Gold Moves. But also to see the program in the film, it will be a dream come true. But a dream as the Bible states in Ecclesiastes 5:3, “For a dream comes with much business and painful effort.” One translation states, “For the dream comes through much effort.” So, much effort is what I will continue to give!
Thanks for being such an important part of our Summer Ray world.
Remember, you can view the Summer Ray books at: https://thememoirsofsummerray.com/the-summer-ray-book-series. Thank you for being such an important part of our Summer Ray world.
References: www.biblegateway.com; google; www. Merriam-Webster.com
THE MEMOIRS OF SUMMER RAY 