It’s funny how something as simple as conquering one small
fear can make you face and conquer a whole bunch of other hard things.
Thursday night I did something I haven’t done in a very long
time.
I got in my old pickup that I had in high school and drove
to Santa Ynez to watch some friends at a reata roping.
It’s really not that
big of a deal for most people, but for the past five years I haven’t driven
much, thanks to having Lyme disease. I’ve been pretty frightened that if I got
to not feeling well and got in a wreck, I’d hurt someone. And I really didn’t
want to have to live with that.
Hands shaking, knuckles griping the wheel, I climbed in….and
it wasn’t even hard.
It’s amazing how something as small as going somewhere by
yourself and reestablishing old friendships can make you feel as if you could
easily conquer the world and leap tall buildings in a single bound!
I got to visit with friends I hadn’t seen in forever, meet
new ones and laugh until my belly hurt. A rawhider and friend that I’ve looked
up to since I was a teenager traded me a pair of shotguns in exchange for
whatever I want to braid him…that felt like such an honor and I can’t wait to
get started!
The wind blew, it even rained a little and my fingers are
itching to start building reatas again so badly I can hardly stand it! I was
blessed to listen to young women whom I have known as little girls discuss their
hopes and dreams and I was inspired by their try and passion.
After having overcome that little fear of driving, I
realized there are a whole bunch of other things in my life that I’ve been
avoiding, and that I can conquer them just as easily as the driving.
What do you fear that is holding you back?
Take a deep breath and give it your best shot, you might be
surprised what else it opens up for you.
xo xo Liz
It's such a good feeling when you can overcome a fear. I've also found it to be true that when you overcome one thing, you have the space to work on others. I'm glad you had such a positive experienced. ~M
ReplyDeleteThank you Maria!! It was SUCH a good feeling, it gave me a big shot of confidence in other areas :)
DeleteI love this post, as usual! Facing your fears makes you uncomfortable and sometimes even MORE terrified in the moment. It's not fun.
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time with driving, too, thanks to living outside of Boston for 22 years and being bombarded by traffic whizzing past me and scary accidents everywhere. It finally got to me after I graduated college and I would have these awful panic attacks, pull over and have friends or family come pick me up.
Rotten, right?! So embarrassing.
I have worked on staying positive, keeping good music with me and just rolling with it and telling myself I'm not going to die. There was NO way I was going to let a fear keep me from exploring the country :)
It looks like you're realizing that creating, joy and being excited for things in life feels so much better than worrying. You'ere an inspiration, Liz! Keep it up and have an awesome week.
-Jessy
Oh my gosh, panic attacks are the worst!!! It's so encouraging though to hear how you got over that!! I've found that music helps too, thanks so much for the lovely comment, you are so very inspiring :)
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