Accepting the Gift Horse

Jan 4, 2015

On my walk two days ago amid the jumble of thoughts in my brain I somehow landed on the saying ‘Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.’ I thought about what that saying means , where it originated and what it was saying to me at that moment. As I worked through all of that I thought about the frequency sayings like that pop up in our everyday conversation. As a writer I sometimes struggle with a tendency to overuse clichés or figures of speech when they creep into my writing. I understand the folly of overuse but at the same time believe that there is wisdom in so many of those sayings. I think it behooves us(now there’s a word that deserves to be used more)to see figures of speech and common sayings for the important grains of truth they hold. These saying came from experiences and observations of life that can still assist us as we live through our present day challenges. If someone gives you a horse for free you shouldn’t look in it’s mouth and criticize the gift if some teeth are missing or the teeth show you it’s an old hag with not much good left in it. So what bit of wisdom did I take from that as I walked along my beloved therapy trail? To me the gift horse is where I find myself at the present moment. I might have asked for a different horse , a younger horse with stronger traits and a more impressive bloodline. But the horse I’ve been given is a gift and I could be without a horse of any kind. Even as I write this I realize there might be those who wonder what the heck I’m talking about but at the time the message was very clear to me. Where I am right now in my life would not be where I would choose if I was asking for a perfect life and expecting that the perfect life I ask for is what I deserve. The life I have is full of sorrow and worry and concern and heartbreak but also so full of joy and hope and potential. The gift horse is not always what it appears at first inspection. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth , accept the gift horse and ride that horse to the best of your ability.

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