Are You Riding a Tiger?

 According to The Free Dictionary of Idioms: To Ride a Tiger is "to become or find oneself responsible for something risky, precarious, or unsafe to abandon; to do something that is safer to continue than it is to quit."

Old Chinese proverb: "He who rides a tiger is afraid to dismount".

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Wow! I didn't know there was such a saying. What I was thinking about for this article wasn't exactly like the saying though the words Riding A Tiger came to mind.  I was thinking about life's lessons and how having an abundance of them - many not good experiences can be a good thing. 

An Interesting Thing Happened The Other Day

   I had an unexpected visitor the other day.  I've known this person for decades.  I wasn't sure why he stopped by - I still don't.  I listened to him talk about the good ole days for a while, trying to figure out why he was here.  He said he wanted to see if I was still alive. OK.

  I isolated myself during Covid and pretty much keep to myself these days. Anyway, after he left, I was thinking about the experiences I've had and I've heard about this person over the decades. I was thinking of that saying "consider the uses of adversity". I believe we all go through them.

  I was also thinking about the various horses I've had and trained over the years.  Even though the 'problem' horses are not good horses to keep (the tiger?) and some people may argue that point (and that's ok to have differing points of view) , they still give us good life's lessons. What is that other old saying: "What doesn't kill you will make you stronger." - something like that.

So Are You Riding a Tiger?

    Are you holding onto a horse that just doesn't fit your personality or your goals at the moment? It's sometimes hard to let go since you have so much invested into the horse and not just money. I'm talking emotional investment.

   The good thing is that after it's all over, the horse is gone and there's now a space for the new horse to enter your life. Then it's a comfort to know that the memories will be with you forever and so is the learning experience.  And that goes for people too.  Something to look forward to as we get older.

   It makes us wiser and cautious the next time.

Putting My Spin on Learning from Those Experience Tigers!

Reinersue

@KISS Reiners