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Yee-Haw!
No hints, won't tell, but coming up in September we have an interview with a talented equestrian who talks about a time when she got bucked off. Doing Dressage. Which is very formal English classical riding. It's not the rodeo. It's not even jumping. You don't do "Airs Above the Ground" until you get to, like, the Olympics for cryin' out loud. So, um, getting bucked off isn't something you expect to happen while you are riding Dressage.
I wish someone had told MY horse that last week during our lesson when he decided spring fever should be acted out in interpretive dance. I was stunned. I was shocked. I was scared. My horse, my sweet, sweet horse who until that moment had barely displayed so much as a bad mood was suddenly bolting across the arena, heels to the sky, like some wild bronco.
So what do you do when life, or your horse, dumps you flat on your fanny in the dirt? That depends. It all depends on something the old-timers liked to call grit. Grit is the ability to work through problems, even if you're discouraged or scared. Especially if you're discouraged or scared. Grit is plain, old determination. If you've got grit, or moxie, when life knocks you down you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, laugh at yourself, and move on. If you don't, you sit in the dirt and cry and stay sorry for yourself. Like most things in life how you react to life is a choice.
I won't spoil the surprise and tell you what our famous equestrian did, but I'll tell you what I did. I didn't actually fall off, but I was so scared I might as well have. I wanted to get off, to quit, to pack it in. Instead, I stayed on, rode my horse until he was sick of bolting, got off, kissed the ground, and went on. I can laugh about it now, life is like that, but at the time I didn't feel like laughing at all.
Will I ride again? Sure will! Will I fall off? I hope not, but it's a distinct possibility. Will I let that deter me from riding again? Not unless I break something.
What about you? How do you handle life's little speed bumps? Do you pick yourself up and move on or throw a large pity party? Your life is all about how you handle disasters. If you can take whatever life throws at you and keep smiling you've got grit.
Until next time, have fun, be cool, and make good choices,
Céleste
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