No Fear

Several years ago while enjoying Six Flags Great Adventure Amusement Park in NJ I saw a teenage boy with one of those “No Fear” brand t-shirts on.  It attracted my attention because on the front it said, “FEAR…..”, and on the back it said, “Thief of Dreams”.  I was taken back about how true that is.

How many times in our lives have we had dreams, whether big or small, and never went for them because of fear.  Those nagging little suggestions that talk you out of it. “It costs too much”, “You could never do that, what are you thinking”, “That is so not for you”, and so on and so on.

Today was my 2nd horseback riding lesson.  It has been a few weeks so it was like starting over.  A comment was made by a young lady standing by – “That horse is gigantic!” – at least that is what I heard.  Well, I never thought Pocahontas was that large the first time.  But when it came time to get on her I saw her “hugeness”.  I put one foot in the stirrup and froze.  Fear started to grip me. I thought, “What am I doing?  I’m too old for this.  I can’t even get on the thing.”  I have the best instructor in the world.  She is patient and kind.  I started to cry – like a 2 year old!  Then I thought of the crazy things the Lord had gotten me into:  10 days at a police academy when I was 51; climbed the Great Wall of China at a difficult location when I was 54. With those thoughts going through my head I simple pushed up and was told later I had a very graceful mount!  Yes!  I overcame my fear.  Getting off however was a lot less graceful!

I swung my leg over the horse rather gracefully but when my foot touched the ground my jacket became snared on the saddle horn.  I simply boosted myself up a little, undid the jacket, and released my other foot out of the stirrup.  This is when it turned into slow motion.  “Ohhhhh nooooo”, as I not so gracefully kept going and plopped on my tailbone right in the dirt!  It hurt, yes, and I laughed and continue to laugh.  The good news is the soreness will go away and the bruise should disappear hopefully by next weeks lesson.

And the better news is I faced my fear and overcame it.  That is success in my book!

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