When Golden Opportunities Have Flies

Earlier, while driving through town, I saw a picture of a horse on the side of a truck. It made me flash back to 7th grade. My mom took a group of my friends and me to a horse farm (no shortage of those in Kentucky). She knew the owners, so they saddled up their horses and gave 6 giggling girls the chance to ride like the wind. Or something like that.

While they were saddling the horses, and no doubt asking them to please not break their friend’s giggling daughter or any of her friends, the other girls and I pointed and picked out which horses we wanted to ride. Angela (who was more a friend of a friend than a friend - in fact, truth be told, she could have been an Amy, Andrea, or Annette - but I’m going with Angela) pointed to the same horse I had my eye on. Being a softy even at the age of 12, I convinced her that I wasn’t really pointing at the muscular horse who was so black he looked blue. No, no, I was pointing at the charming grayish, brownish, smallish, one behind him. Yeah, the one with about a gazillion flies around it.

I overheard someone telling Angela Amy Andrea Annette that her beast’s name was Magical just as I was being told the name of mine: Gomer. As in Pyle. If I’d been allowed to cuss, I’d have blistered fate with every word I’d ever heard my dad use.

That afternoon proved to be SO much fun. When we left, I nearly cried when I hugged Gomer and told him goodbye. He had the sweetest, most gentle disposition in the world and, in spite of his appearance, he actually left the rest in the dust. Even Magical. Even before I got behind the wheel of a car, speed was of the utmost importance to me. Several speeding tickets later, I guess it still is.

I guess the moral of this story would be this: We don’t always get what we want in life. Sometimes we’re “blessed” with problems that we’d just as soon not be “blessed” with. We almost never have all the things in life that we want, and the grass on the other side of the fence doesn’t always just look greener - sometimes it is!

We have two choices.

1.  We climb up in the saddle life’s prepared for us and ride it out.   We can hope for the best and deal with the rest.  Or…
2. We can stand around whining and complaining.  We can tell everyone within earshot that life just isn’t fair and that, By God, we deserve better than this!

Personally, I’m all for getting in the saddle.  You just never know when it’ll lead to one of the greatest rides ever.  Many opportunities actually come into our lives looking like Gomer the horse - flies and all. In the end, you realize you wouldn’t have had it any other way.

** The adorable print at the top of the post is from AllPosters.com - click the link or the horse, herself (himself?), for a closer look.