Get Back in the Saddle

Last night my husband and I were just settling down to watch Survivor together when our front door opened and our youngest daughter was screaming for Mommy. We jumped up and ran upstairs at break-neck speed to see what was wrong. There in the entry way stood our 5-year-old daughter, cyring hysterically, blood dripping down her face, clothes splotched with blood and her hands coated trying to hold it all in. Seeing her like that made my heart sank to the floor.

My husband scooped her up and we ran upstairs to our bathroom where we tried to assess the situation. We checked her mouth first to make sure she hadn't knocked her teeth out, and then we checked to make sure she hadn't broken anything. All the while, she's still sobbing uncontrollably. At one point she looks up and asks, "Am I going to die?" Another heart-dropping moment for this mom! What must have been going through her young mind to ask such a question!! Poor thing. She said she had fallen off her bike so, while I cleaned her up, her daddy went out to get it and put it away. By the time I had her hair washed and she was all clean, she had calmed down a bit. I gave her some aspirin and got her out of the tub.

Standing there in the bathroom as I toweled her off, we began to giggle at her appearance. She had a goose-egg on her forehead, scrapes on her nose and a fat lip. We giggled even more when she saw her lopsided smile in the mirror. She was going to be okay.

Today, she was going to go play at a friend's house. Normally, she would ride her bike over, but today she said she was just going to walk. I told her she should just ride her bike over, it was faster. But, she gave me several excuses why she didn't want to ride her bike today, but what it all boiled down to was this: She was afraid.

I saw some of myself in her in that moment. How many times have I let something that scared me keep me from doing things I loved? How often had something that made me uncomfortable or insecure kept me from experiencing something joyful? How many times had I deprived myself of joy because of fear??

I reminded her how excited she was when she first learned to ride her two-wheeler bike. I told her how good she was at it and how proud I was that she could ride like a big-girl. I walked outside with her and pulled out her bike and urged her to get on. She did, albeit a bit reluctantly, but she did. I watched her ride down the driveway and I couldn't help but smile. She was doing it! She wasn't going as fast as she normally does, and she slowed way down when she came to a curb, but she was riding her bike again! And, she was smiling.

I can learn so much from her.