The Second Time I Auditioned for the Ice Capades

It was every girls dream - to skate in the Ice Capades.  I worked, and I worked and I worked.  Private ice at 5am, stretching and jump class at 7am, jogging up and down the stairs in my skates at 8am, then a day filled with practice - always practice.

Having only tried once before to skate I never would have ever dreamed that one day I would be an Ice Skater.  How that word just rolls off my tongue and floats across my consciousness.

When I got my drivers license it opened up such a huge world to me.  I don’t really remember that first time that I skated (really the second time - but who's counting?).  I just know I loved it.  I loved the wind created by my strokes.  I loved the coolness of the ice.  I loved watching others do tricks and spins and jumps.  I loved the choreography and the music.  It seemed so magical.  So I worked.  I practiced.  I fell a few times.  I won competitions.  I joined the drill team.  I learned Ice Dance and competed in that to.  I played broom ball with the real skaters - the Ice Capades skaters.  I became a trial judge (or at least started the training).  I skated in goofy feet (not easy - I’m telling you).  I became an ice skating teacher (yep- one of the few times I fell was as I confidently took the ice to teach my first class without removing my skate guards).  I loved the costuming.  I loved the smell of the rink.  I loved the people i got to know.  I loved my skates.

The first audition for the show didn’t go so well.  It was held around midnight at the coliseum in Charlotte.  I learned a lot.  I learned that a skater has about 18” to stop past the back curtain.  I learned that show skaters were nice and supportive.  I learned that the show ice was very, very, very rough.  I learned not to allow my teeth to touch while skating on this ice - they rattled and felt as though they would surely break.  I learned that my Mom wanted me to ‘be somebody’ - yes she was there with me.  I learned that others in my family would only laugh at me.

I was asked to try again the next year.

Rather than being disappointed, after all most skaters do not make it after their first audition, I applied myself even harder.  One of my grandfathers bought new professional skates for me.  He believed I would.  Mom knew I would.


So 365 days later I again was ready to audition in the Charlotte coliseum, on the lumpy, bumpy show ice, in front of the show skaters and other skaters who were hoping to pass auditions.  My Mom was there then too.  I had two routines ready.  Double Dutch Bus went well - kind of a courageous choice. Fame went well - very well.  No don’t ask me to show it to you - my body no longer cooperates.  Then it was time for Your Eyes Only - the Sheena Easton masterpiece.

I portrayed the feelings and all of the agony of the past few years of training.  I was sure that I was skating flawlessly.  The people in attendance was laughing at me the whole time.  I kept my composure even though I was near tears.  I dutifully finished the program and held my ending as thunderous applause erupted.  I went over to sit with my Mom.  Literally gritting my teeth to keep from crying I asked her why had everyone laughed at me during the most serious, sincere program that I had ever skated?

Her reply “You didn’t see the cat, did you?”

The cat?  Apparently there had been a cat jumping along with me and lurching in the space between jumps and chasing my leg as I did spirals and such.

There was no time to absorb this because the director asked to see me.  He complimented me on an amazing performance.  (No I din’t tell him that I never saw the cat).  He asked what my availability was.  Do what?  Then he handed me a packet of information and my journey began.  Occasionally I run across the official letter inviting me to join the show.  I always put it away in a safe place where even I don’t remember.

So I went to work.  I spun, I jumped, I glided, I did foot work, I rehearsed emotionality, I learned the music - I mean every single note, and I bought a trunk.  The trunk was the thing that would be consistent.  It would be where my life was stored as I reveled in my new lot in life.  My Mom - oh my Mom was so proud.  She would hold impromptu autograph sessions.  Her amazing grin with her face radiating light that i had never, ever seen in her.

When you’re about to join a skating road show you have to have all sorts of  Medical clearance.  It was the OB-GYN that got me.  I was given a choice.  Either I could have a skating career after a full hysterctomy or I could one day have children.  I chose my Daughter that very day.  I didn’t really give up a dream - I mean who else can say they shared show ice with a cat?   My dreams - they did change.  The treatment for the Endometriosis was horrific.  I survived those two years.  God allowed me to be a Mother of Zion,  a Mother in a community defined by Christianity and exemplary service with intelligence and faith so strong that it prepared me for the many mountains in my life.  The mountains that I couldn’t climb over, divert around or otherwise escape I plowed through.

All because of a cat, and a Mother who knew I could.

Bright As The Stars

Stars.  They are brilliant pinpoints of light in the night sky all over the world and actually it is assumed all over the universe which is ever-increasing.  If we were to choose, would we choose to be the role model of all that is human and terrestrial or would we take the higher expression of human life and be like the stars shining forth to lead people to the WAY?

I’m behind, as usual, with my scripture study.  So I started with last week’s  and got to the second sentence, yes - the second sentence and there began a two hour study.  It began with Matthew 1.

Abraham was a Hittite and as such he would have understood and strived to follow the traditions of having two legitimate wives so as to attempt the certainty of a male heir.  My curiosity was kindled with the Number ‘14’.  My research uncovered the following:

• The doubling of the number ‘7’ to 14 is a reminder of perfection.
• 7 was the amount of time God took to create the world.
• 7 are the primary directions
• behind
• ahead
• right Side
• left side
• above
• below
• here
• 2 may refer to incarnation because it takes 2 to create life in partnership with God
• There are 3 sets of 14 mentioned which may evoke a sense of the triune God.
• Interestlingly the 14th day of the first month is when Passover is celebrated.
• 430 years before the first Passover God covenented with Abraham regarding his descendants.  When divided by 14 we get 30.7, which is the approximate age of Christ when he was cruicified.

The name Issac means “He will laugh” perhaps forshadowing the carnel nature of humans.  We also need to remember that Abraham and Sarah laughed when they were told they would be parents..  Unlike the prophets to follow him, Issac’s name was never changed.  Issac never left Cannan likely because he had been consecrated to God.  He can be seen as a ‘type’ of Christ in that he was to be a blood sacrafice (which legend says caused his Mother’s death),  which embodied Heavenly Father’s promise to mankind.  Issac carried the wood for the scraficial fire up the mountain just as Jesus carried the cross for his cruixfiction. 

Ismael was the older brother of Issac and typifies mans struggle with bondage to the things of this world and it’s propencity to becoming a barrier to the Way of God.

Issac typifies grace which is the center doctrince of the Way of God.  God’s grace permeates every element of our beings if we would only allow it.  This grace is then demonstrated through our works, or in other words our efforts to lead a life defined by service to others by being a pinpoint of light in the dreary world.  Without these works, which should be second nature for the redeemed, the grace of God is put into serious question.  What is the point of grace if not for spreading it’s light to everyone?

Issac was a gift from God.  His parents could have never imagined the impact his life would have on human history.  Courage is a hallmark of strong faith and is indespensible in a life along the Way of God..  If we embrace our destiny and true nature as children of God then we face the numerous challenges of life courage that can only be bestowed by God, solidified by Jesus and manifested by the Holy Ghost.

This idea lends itself well to the idea of living with an eternal perspective.  Our earthly time is less than a blink in our Real life.  Issac’s progeny demonstrates many wonderful attributes including:

1. Being leaders to those who are followers.
2. Being guides to those who are lost.
3. Being an inspiration to those who have no inspiration.
4. Being workers of deeds that are good to those who have only known bad.
5. Being prayer warriors by continuing the Abrahamic call of daily prayer
6. Being charitable in a world that swims with selfishness.
7. Being servants who are reflections of God.

7 Points.  Interesting indeed.

Issac is also known as the ‘digger of wells’.  This is another evidence that he was a ‘type’ of Christ.  Christ endowed his followers with the tools and desire to dig wells, to uncover the clear, refreshing Water of his atonement.  Water that has the power to stave off thirst if only we would allow it by our thoughts, intnets, actions and reflections..  By digging wells we provide a ready source for those who are searching.  We would do well to remember to dig wells along our path of life.  Only then can we have the potential of providing life to others intersecting our path.

Abrraham was shilded by God himself and promised an “exceedingly great reward”.  Let that sink in.  A reward that exceeds great.  Can you imagine?

Abraham boldly asks God what could he possible give him.  He taunted God by declaring that Eliezer of Damascus was to be his heir.  He complains to God that he had not been given any seed and reminds God that an heir must be born in his home.  God responds by saying  that Eliezer would not be his heir and that his heir would definitely come from his own body.

The Bible says that God took Abraham ‘abroad’ and commanded him to consider the starts and promised him that his progeny would be as vast as those pinpoints of light.  To his credit, Abraham believed God and proclaimed himself to be VERY righteous.

It is thought that Eliezer was the head steward of Abraham’s household and was in fact his biological son by his concubine Meshek.  Ishmael had been the product of his intimacy with Hager.  

Abrham’s father was Torah who also had two wives.  Abraham was the son of one and Sarah was the daughter of the other.  Abraham’s other wife was Keturah.   They all shared a father.  Both of Abraham’s were barren to this point.  Keturah gave birth to Abraham’s  first born son Joktan whose lineage is traced through the Joktanite Tribes of Arabia

Eliezer can be viewed as a ‘type’ of the Holy Spirit.  Being at tentative to the needs of the house.  Operating in the background while depending on the people of the home to let their needs be known and acting on their behalf per their supplications. 

You are in need of nothing that you don’t already have.