I wore my daughter’s hockey pants the day after Christmas.
Padded. Bulky. And exactly what I needed.
Miranda took up hockey a year ago after watching the Penguins play. She told me it looked like magic.
So for Christmas, she didn’t ask for anything wrapped. She asked me to come skate with her.
I loved skating as a child. Won a competition when I was eleven—camel, scratch spin, waltz jump. The ice was my place once.
But I hadn’t skated in decades.
So there I was in Roanoke, lacing up, borrowing her hockey pants for protection, feeling the familiar cold air of the rink. Very tentative at first. Then a few swizzles.
But more important than my skating was that for the first time I got to watch Miranda skate. Being in this place she drives an hour each way to get to, every week, because she loves it. Loves stick and puck. Loves working on her hockey stop.
On the drive home, I found myself almost deliriously happy. Not because I skated again, though that was nice. But because Miranda had invited me into her world. And I said yes.
Then, right before New Year’s, the four of us went to PPG Arena in Pittsburgh to watch the Penguins play. A hockey game was a first for me. Sitting beside her, watching something she loves, cheering as the Penguins scored—and won.
Two invitations. Two yeses.
It seems like a small thing, saying yes to invitations like these.
But it’s not small at all.
Because invitations like Miranda’s ask something of us. They ask us to step out of our comfortable routines and neural pathways. To jump to new S Curves.
But the payoff—and why I think I was so happy—is massive.
So many of us are trying to support the people in our world, at home and at work. A child. A partner. A colleague. A direct report. A friend. We want to help them grow. We want to encourage them. We want to say the right thing.
But maybe the best way to support someone isn’t advice, it’s participation.
It’s stepping onto the ice when you’re lucky enough to be invited.
Who is inviting you into their world?
Will you say yes?
Happy New Year,
Whitney