Master Of The Rodeo

When my son was about 5 years old we lived far out in the country. It was one of those places were a southerner might say they had to “pipe in” sunshine! It wasn't my favorite location as I am a "city girl" (a city southern girl!), but it was just this side of heaven for a pre-schooler. We had acres of land, trees for climbing, woods for exploring, a huge deep ditch to ride a bike in and then there was Boomer. Boomer was my son's golden lab. I watched the two of them day in and day out perform the strangest ritual. My little man would hop on Boomer's back and ride him like a horse. Boomer knew better though and was determined to let Josh know that he was NOT a horse! Every time Josh would hop up on Boomer’s back, Boomer would walk just enough to tease him, and then would stand up on his hind legs and buck Josh off, throwing him gently to the ground. Boomer thought he was teaching Josh a lesson, but my smart little man was teaching him. He was teaching him to behave like a bucking horse! Sometimes life is just that way. We hop on ready to go full steam ahead but “life” wants to show us who’s in charge and that it isn’t what we thought it was. We get thrown to the ground time and time again. But a determined man or woman will brush themselves off, hop right back on and keep riding! And before long something changes. Life isn’t controlling us, we are controlling it! It is doing tricks for us that it doesn’t even realize. So if you get thrown to the ground today or tomorrow; next week, month or year, hop back on. You are master of this rodeo!