Feels like so long ago

Solstice on the flow seems like another lifetime ago - a time warp away from New Year's day, ice skating on a pond when the temperature was 8 degrees before the wind gusts came from every direction to blow across the ice. I wore my mother's skates, that are likely as least as old as I am. They are like stained, supple gloves. I am not smooth on the ice, or as flexible as my skates, except perhaps my ankles, which bend as they always have, and never should. But I love the crispness that burns my cheeks red like apples hanging on a tree branch against the white snow. I like to glide with one foot lifted off the ice, and to sail with the wind.