Syeahskate

An impatient skater once cried out to master Ch'an..."I have skated for almost a year now, and yet I can't get any better. I cannot do a kickflip. My ollie is not as high as my friend's. I practice and practice, but I just can't do these tricks. I see all these maneuvers in magazines and videos, and it seems that everybody is doing them...except for me. All these little kids do these complex flips and make them look so easy. I see people doing crazy things down huge flight of stairs. Every other skater is getting better and better, developing more and more intricate tricks with each passing day; but not I! I am so frustrated! "

Master Ch'ian picked up an orange leaf that had fallen from a tree and said:

"This leaf that has fallen down from the autumn skies...does this leaf chose to come down whenever it wants? Why does it wait for this time of the season to change its colors, to lose its green lushness, to fall from the tree that has given it life?"

"Why do the blacknecked geese begin to make their annual migration during this time...and not during the summer or spring? Why must they wait for this exact moment; when, in fact, they have the ability to do it anytime of the year?"

"Time takes its natural course...Just as this leaf is patient to wait for fall to change into its illustrious colors, so you too must be patient when you skate. A trick will blossom into its magnificent colors as inevitably as this fall foliage when you have patience with time...when you build it slowly and perfectly. You cannot backside ollie without first learning to ollie straight...and you cannot ollie successfully if you can't roll away smoothly...Time takes its natural and inevitable course. "

"Look at this leaf: it is unique, it is special. It is completely different from the other leaves that surround our feet. There is no other leaf that has the same patchwork of colors, the same patterns of vasculature, the same feel. Your skating should be like this leaf...it should be special and strictly your own. No other person can dictate to you what is beautiful in skating...because beauty is within your own soul. Once you realize this, your skating will blossom as inevitably as this fall foliage."

So spoke Master Ch'ian.