# data[].attributes.body
"When I released myself to the mystery of the ice I became a different creature. I could slow down time, choose the tempo I needed whenever  I launched myself into learning a new skill" (65).

# data[].attributes.body
"The arena went crazy. The klaxon buzzer sounded, the red light flashed, their players slammed their sticks on the ice, the crowd roared. i was lost in a wild celebration of arms and sticks and helmets. Father Leboutilier was standing at the open gate to our bench as i skated over, his face was red with excitement. He stopped me and put his hands on my shoulder pads. 'That was beautiful,' he said. 'You were beautiful.'" (76).

# data[].attributes.body
"I learned to envision myself making moves before I tried them. If I could see myself doing it, then I could do it. It worked for any move. There was no explanation for how I could do what I did. I knew it was a mystery and I honoured it that way" (65).

# data[].attributes.body
"I was a small boy with outsized skates, and in the world that hockey created I found a new home" (72).

# data[].attributes.body
"There was always the ritual of shovelling the snow and clearing the ice, that solitary work of preparing to open doors to a magical kingdom" (63).

# data[].attributes.body
"When I released myself to the mystery of the ice I became a different creature. I could slow down time, choose the tempo I needed whenever I launched myself into learning a new skill. I could hurtle down the ice at full speed and then bend time in upon itself to slow the turn, every muscle, every tendon, every sinew in my body remembering the movement, learning it, making it a part of me" (65-66).

# data[].attributes.body
"I'd never heard from my parents. Maybe they couldn't find me. Maybe their shame over abandoning us in the bush was too great. Or maybe the drink had taken them over as easily as hockey had claimed me. Some nights I felt crippled by the ache of loss. But I knew that loneliness would be dispelled by the sheen of the rink in the sunlight, the feel of the cold air on my face, the sound of a wooden stick shuffling frozen rubber" (73).

# data[].attributes.body
"I knew that loneliness would be dispelled by the sheen of the rink in the sunlight, the feel of cold air on my face, the sound of wooden stick shuffling frozen rubber"  (73).

# data[].attributes.body
"There are stories of teachers among our people who could determine where a particular moose was, a bear, the exact time the fish would make their spawning runs. My great-grandfather Shabogeesick, the original Indian Horse, had that gift. The world spoke to him. It told him where to look. Shabogeesick's gift had been passed on to me. There's no other explanation for how I was able to see this foreign game so completely right away" (58).

# data[].attributes.body
"The game started in a mad scramble. Reserve and blush boys made sudden crazy turns and spins as they chased the puck back and forth, and only the last of Father Levoutilier's whistle returned things to a momentary calm. The players leaned forward on their sticks, eyes charcoal glints in sunshine. The excitement in the air was so thick you could smell it"(Pg 57).

# data[].attributes.body
"I became a bird. An ungainly bird at first, but a creature of the air nonetheless. I leaned too far forward and had to save myself from falling, but I managed to propel myself along. In my mind I could see the way that I wanted my body to behave on skates and I worked toward that. For a week I practiced. Step and glide. Step. Glide. Step. Glide" (64).

# data[].attributes.body
" I would get out of bed and stand in the aisle between the rows of the cots, where the moonlight made the linoleum look like ice, and mimic the motion of stickholding" (62).

# data[].attributes.body
"This was the game. This gathering of brothers, of kin, joined by the exuberant of effort and challenge and strain, breathing the air that rose from the glacial face of a rink under a bleak sun" (67).

# data[].attributes.body
"I no longer felt the hopeless, chill air around me because I had Father Leboutilier,the ice,the mornings and the promise of a game that I would soon be old enough to play" (66).

# data[].attributes.body
"I will never forget the first time I watched the older boys play. The white glory of the rink. The sun was shining and the sky was pale blue. There wasn't a hint of wind" (57).

# data[].attributes.body
"This was the game.This gathering of brothers, of kin, joined by the exuberance of effort and challenge an strain, breathing the air that rose from the glacial face of a rink under a bleak sun" (67).

# data[].attributes.body
"At night in the dormitory.... I'd stand there, arms held high in triumph, and I would not feel lonely or afraid, deserted or abandoned, but connected to something far bigger than myself. Then I'd climb back into bed and sleep until the dawn woke me and I could walk back out to the rink again" (62).

# data[].attributes.body
"We need mystery. Creator in her wisdom knew this. Mystery fills us with awe and wonder. They are the foundations of humility, and humility, grandson, is the foundation of all learning. So we do not seek to unravel this. We honour it by letting it be that way forever"   (64).

# data[].attributes.body
"I became a bird ... As I laced on the skates my fingers actually trembled. Not from the cold but from the knowledge that freedom was imminent, that flight was at hand. I floated out onto a snow-white stage in a soliloquy of grace and motion. I loved it. Every time I skated I felt as though I had created the act. It was pure and new and startling" ( 64).