Rattlesnakes and Scars

A while back I wrote about an experience I had while I was out riding.  Rhett and I came up on a culvert that we had ridden across many times as a way to avoid a really boggy area. Rhett does not like mud! Never has, never will.  He will cowboy up and go through it when I really need him to, but only then!  Anyhow, we rode up on that little culvert and the thing came alive!  The ground vibrated and in .05 seconds I knew the sound of rattlesnakes. Lots of rattlesnakes.  Rhett knew it too and screeched to a halt. In another .05 seconds we were backing up just as fast as we could.  Twenty five feet later we stopped and both of us caught our breath.  Our hearts were pounding and we could not wait to get out of there!

I rode past that little culvert again this afternoon.  Each and every time we go by I hear those snakes in my mind.  I know they most likely have moved on to a deeper den for winter.  But neither Rhett or I want to take the chance.  I know some of my dear readers are laughing at me right now and that's just fine with me.  I'm not the only one with a snake issue.  My dear cousin Joellyn scared one up with her lawn mower last summer.  Now she doesn't go anywhere near that part of her back yard. Just in case.... Rattlesnakes have such an ability to freak us out!

It occurred to me today that my snake issues are like some of my other "scars".  Maybe something doesn't actually cause us physical damage, but it still leaves a scar. Something can frighten us so badly that we're never quite the same.  It makes it so we just can't quite ride across that culvert anymore.  It can be something that others deem silly or small.  Something that nobody else even notices.  Yet it stays with us and leaves a scar.

It's now a goal of mine to somehow get over the fear of that culvert.  Maybe I'll walk over it after throwing a bunch of rocks at it.  Just to be sure.  But I'm gonna do it! Of course, if I even think I hear a snake, or see a snake, forget it!  I'm outta there!  I'm not dumb enough to get myself snake bit for the cause of conquering a fear....

'Til next time,
B