Getting Out of the Corner
I just returned from three days at Riverwalk Resort at Loon Mountain for their annual Adult Skating Camp with coaches Elin Schran, John Mucko, Sean Marshinki, PT Loni Rodriguez, off-ice trainer Pippa Teague, and special guest coach, World Champion Randy Gardner.
I made the decision to go only a week or so before the event. It was a risk. I didn’t know anyone except Elin, and I knew many skaters knew each other and had been skating together for many years. But I went anyway, not really knowing what to expect.
It was a glorious three days of community building, camaraderie, masterful group and private coaching, wonderful meals, an epic party...
hot tubbing, and of course the experience of skating on a magical outdoor rink at the foot of the mountain.
Each one of these coaches brought something valuable and unique and personal to the experience, whether it was technique, developing a program, finding inspiration through nature, connection and transition, or being fully present in the process.
But it was John Mucko’s message to us on the last day that seemed to encapsulate the weekend. A master choreographer, John invited us to take advantage of the whole ice as our canvas. Although it is tempting to stay in the corner working on your edges, or practicing that new spin or jump, John consistently challenged us to put ourselves out there, to take up all of the ice we are given, exploring the space around us, use our bodies to experiment with the negative space, and to remind us to “get out of the corner.”
We all experimented with this over the course of several days, and the coaches gave us exercises to explore ourselves on the ice, including guided skating with our eyes closed, improv skating, and developing our own program as we interpreted the music with our bodies.
And I realized that the weekend really was about risk and “getting out of the corner” in all areas of our lives, both on and off the ice. We’d all like a guarantee before making a decision or taking a risk, but I believe the irony is that taking the risk is what opens us to ourselves.
John challenged us to get out of our self-built cocoon. We all get very habituated and attached to our particular familiar skin—our cocoon. Every one of us. It is part of our evolution. We develop our cocoon and we are attached to it. Most of the time, we are trying to get what we want and avoid what we don’t want as we try to hold on to security and comfort and push away fear or pain. But the more we risk, the more we can not only see the goodness in ourselves and each other, but we then invite it out. To live permeably is to be open-hearted and audacious, to risk showing up as our truest self, and embracing a willingness to be astonished.
In this part of the country, winter is a time of dying off. We look around and it seems like there is nothing happening. And yet, what is resting just below the surface, gathering energy, integration, grounding and courage? What is still stunning and shimmering in the frosty air? What is already moving but still unseen on the surface of things? What can I see more clearly? In the winter I find myself drawn to do what the natural world is modeling, I sense that my spirit is connected to the wheel of the natural world. But in the busy days of my life, it is easy to disconnect from the idea that what is happening in nature, is also happening within me.
So today. What would happen if we created even just a little open space to remember how our spirits are connected to the wheel of the natural world? What does it feel like to embrace the whole of the ice, the whole of our lives, what is resting or gone, what is shimmering and luminous, what is coming into clearer focus, and what newness is waiting for us on the other side of winter?
This retreat was certainly about skating, with legit the best coaches in the business, but it was also about community and risk and trust and vulnerability, removing as much as possible between us and life. Which, yes, makes us vulnerable, but it also returns us to the unrepeatable miracle of being here completely.
