Time & Perspective Quote by Clara Hughes

Love here is not a mere preference but a compass. The words carry the certainty of a calling, the way some people describe hearing music only they can hear. Stepping onto the ice is not just entering an arena; it is crossing a threshold into a state where body, mind, and environment align. The surface becomes both instrument and partner, a mirror that reflects purpose back to the skater. “Meant to do” suggests more than talent; it suggests inevitability, a harmony between inner desire and outward action.

There is also a ritual implied: every time. Purpose is not validated once, at a podium or in a headline, but renewed with each glide, each breath crystallized in cold air. Repetition doesn’t dull the feeling; it clarifies it. The skater’s life is built on loops, laps, drills, seasons, yet within that loop is a constant confirmation: this is the place where effort feels like belonging.

Such love transforms discipline into devotion. The early mornings, the ache of training, the years of refining mechanics are not sacrifices to be endured for rewards later; they are part of the reward. Joy becomes durable because it lives in the daily act, not solely in the outcome. That is why the statement is both personal and universal: it points to an intersection many seek, the act that returns them to themselves.

Ice, with its paradox of frictionless resistance, is a perfect metaphor for this union. Mastery requires surrender as much as control; glide is earned, not forced. To feel “meant” is to recognize that the self is most fully expressed through motion, and that motion is most beautiful when it looks like effort transformed into ease.

Purpose, then, is less a destination than a place one can stand, laced boots, sharpened blades, a cold sheet stretching ahead, and know, without doubt, that this is home.