Had tried to ice skate few times in Houston,Texas Galleria (a big shopping mall with an ice skating rink). Though I got the balance I was not skating smoothly like other skaters.There was pain in the legs and hip. Increasing the rental shoe size from 8, 9 and 10 couldn't help.
I decided to go for ice skating one more time which would be the last if I didn’t perfect my skills. The first two rounds were horrible as usual. I was the slowest in the ring, a buffalo among horses. I was scared by the fear of falling. I was doing ice ‘scaring’ not skating. One falling in a fine angle can make me bed ridden like Denzel Washington in the movie ‘Bone collector’. Recollected the quote,” Our greatest glory is not in ever falling, but in rising every time we fall”(as per Google, it was told by Confucius, who wouldn’t have meant falling in ice skating ring anyway.) Internally saying ‘focus on skating and not on falling’ or verbally saying ‘you can do it’ didn’t help either. One onlooker gave the “boo” sound to scare me.
I came out of the ring, got seated and meditated for couple of minutes. The guy who booed is just watching skaters. However I am enjoying skating. ’Wait, are you ENJOYING?’ .It struck to me the answer was a big ‘NO’. That was the difference between the others who are skating well and me who was trying to skate. I decided to just go and enjoy skating without worrying about falling, what angle to bend forward, keeping hands loose etc. I went to the ring and started to enjoy the skating. WOW, within seconds I was skating like others freely and smoothly. I was myself fully and conscious, not the self retarded by the fear of falling. After few rounds, a fellow skater who had observed me from the beginning said,” you started doing well”.
Thanks to the person who booed but for him I would have failed in my ice skating adventure. 
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