One at a time.

As I grasped the lat pulldown bar at Gold’s Gym I was taken back to a foggy memory from college. Actually every time I intentionally grasp something in this manner, one finger at a time starting with my pinky and rolling on to every finger, I think of my one rodeo experience.
My senior year in college I somehow ended up in the bareback bronco section of the ACU intramural rodeo even though I had never even seen at rodeo. I remember borrowing a hat and a pair of boots and driving to the event center, but for the most part the rest of this story is from oral traditions passed on to me by my roommates and my then girlfriend, now wife, Lindsay. I entered the shoot (I think that’s what rodeo people call it) and once my name was called I found myself on a very upset horse. Some nice Ag department guys sat me on this awful animal and then yelled to get a glove. They scrambled to find a yellow left-handed glove for me. As the days went on after the incident I remember what happened next. With the yellow glove on my left hand I grasped a rope wrapped around the bronco, intentionally and dramatically one finger at a time, starting with the pinky and rolling towards my thumb. The picture of my left hand grasping has indelibly been burnt into my memory. As the story goes on, I ended up lasting four or five seconds on that cursed creature, which was second best, but my place was the least of my concerns when I came to that next day. I woke up with vomit in my mouth and on my shirt, a terrible headache, an inability to move or even deal with any noise and a great deal of confusion as to why a city boy would enter a rodeo.
The memory of grasping, intentionally and dramatically, oddly comes back to me almost every time my left hand grasps, including today in the gym. I was reminded by this weird memory that when you get in a situation in which you feel overwhelmed and disoriented you need just two things; First, friends that will get you on the horse; Second, to take it one finger at a time, patiently and intentionally. One step at a time. Sure, you might get knocked off, but that’s a given in life. But you might just make a memory that’s worth keeping forever.