I have been saving this image.  It is a photograph of a painting that I bought in Stuttgart about ten years ago.  I was walking down the street and saw it in a window, and that was it. This is how I want to feel when I am riding.  Actually, this is how I want to feel when I am writing, or dancing, or swimming.

I want to feel like a wild woman most of the time.  That gets harder as I get older.  Why?  I think it has to do with expectations, mine and those of others.  I think it has to do with assumptions.  The ones that I make about myself, that are made about me.  The ones that I make are most damaging.  They are the ones that really get under my skin.  They inform the way I see myself, carry myself.  They are insidious, harsh, soul-killing.

The body-mind connection is real.  When the mind shudders or stumbles, the body does follow. Little fissures erupt along the fault lines.  Over time, they widen into chasms.  Unless we see it coming, notice the erosive little thought inroads and make a different choice.

That is why I need images like this.  They remind me of my wilder side.  They keep me in the saddle.  They keep me flying.  They help me to see my most glorious, most valiant self.

What keeps you wild?