It's as easy as falling off a horse

You know, falling off a horse is surprisingly easy. It's the hitting the ground part that is hard. Actually, even hitting the ground isn't that bad. Hitting other stuff on the way to the ground is rather painful, though.

I fell off my horse yesterday and I hit the gate on the way to the ground. I have a bruise on my ass the shape and size of one of the gate rails and another bruise on my arm that I just found this morning. My entire left side hurts, and that's not the side that hit the ground. That's the side that hit the gate. Some of it seems to be pulled muscles from fighting to stay on, too. The only thing on my right side that hurts is my jaw. I have a bruise along it. I must have bounced it off the ground.

I've discovered something, though. The worse has happened, and I survived. I'm not even really hurt. It wasn't that bad. Sure, I cried. It hurt like a motherfucker at the time. I've got bruises and sore muscles. But I'm ok. Hell, the side that actually hit the ground isn't even sore.

When I got back into riding a year ago, I found I had developed a fear of falling off the horse. It made me nervous all the time. I've got this fear of failure in other parts of my life, too. It shows up most noticeably in my writing. I'm afraid of failing, so I avoid actually writing. If I never finish, I can't get rejections, can I? But I have gotten a rejection, and it wasn't that bad. All that bruised was my ego, and not even that much because I knew that the manuscript I submitted wasn't all that fabulous since it was one of the first ones I'd ever written.

I got back on the horse, though. She freaked again but I landed on my feet that time. I've kept writing, and I'll land on my feet with that, too.

Don't be afraid to do the things you love. There are worse things than falling, like never getting on in the first place.