Mirror, Mirror on the wall...

It was spectacular! Colors and shiny clothes, prim and proper princes and graceful damsels, elephants, palaces, islands all on ice skates. It is that time of the year again, when Disney on Ice comes to town. For those who are new to this, this is an ice skating extravaganza with Disney's costumed characters.The excitement on every kid's face was enjoyable. Many of them were dressed as fairies and even hadmagic wands. Even adults were almost kid-ish. The whole show was expertly practiced and executed. Nobody slipped on the ice (some did deliberately as a part of the show-especially Cindrella's wicked and clumsy step-sisters).

Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cindrella all came one after the other. I was totally transported to a different world, as were a number of people around me. All the fairy tales we read as kids came back rushing to me. It was amazing to see a little girl screaming "no, Snow White!" when she was about to take a bite of the poisonous apple pie. The girl had tears in her eyes, when Snow White went on to eat the pie and then swooned.


The characters on ice seemed so casual, yet they were impeccable. I wondered how many times they would have rehearsed this. It seemed so hard to believe - especially when I think of the ice skating lessons I took just 3 years ago. Just skating slowly with arms outstretched was difficult enough. I can still remember the number of times I fell. It looks so easy when we see figure skaters on TV. I remember thinking that the trick is to let go. I tried that several times, but only fell on my backside. Ouch! I realized then that you must have some balance. I admit, I was severely challenged in that area!

Many times (every time I fell-make that many, many, many) I questioned why it is I felt this would be easy and why at all I joined those classes. But looking back, I am glad I did. Now, I appreciate those figure skaters all the more and I am glad I had that first hand experience and I would even try it again. It seems every experience brings some new knowledge and new perspectives.