Catalyst in your Life

As we trundle through life, we face obstacles, make decisions and move on.

But have you ever thought about the little things that can direct you into making the correct decision? What was the catalyst?

Catalyst: 2nd definition an agent that provokes or speeds significant change or action

Case A: When I was in my early 20's I decided that I wanted to learn to ride a horse. I've always loved horse, but my family was poor and we lived in a city, so the horse riding opportunities were slim to none. But I was making money and I went to the local riding stables, KJM Stables. My trainer put me on various school horses, until we found one that worked. Her name was Brandy Sue. Brandy had been a three-day event horse back in her day, until she had a problem foaling, which resulted in a foal's hoof tearing a hole into her rectum (I forgot the term. Jody, a little help here), which led to numerous bacterial infections. Brandy was in her late teens/early twenties when I started riding her. And I rode her in my very first hunter/jumper schooling show. Eight crossbar fences, and I had never saddled a horse before in my life when my trainer told me to get mounted. In my defense, the school horses were always saddled and ready to go when I went to class, so I never learned to saddle a horse. All I can say is Thank God, Brandy knew the course because my mind went BLANK, and I mean totally blank. I didn't even remember the course after I got off. If you pointed her to the first fence, all the rider had to do was hang on, because Brandy knew straight line, diagonal, straight, diagonal, and eight fences. Brandy was the best UNTIL the rider tried to take the driving away from her. Then she's dump your butt in the dirt . . . trust me, I wasn't the only one.
--Brandy led the way for the correct decision. It was time for me to move onto a new horse.

Case B: My fourth year of college was an internship at a hospital in my home town. So, of course, I moved back home. After I graduated, I lived at home to build up a nest egg, buy a car, {mumble, mumble} start taking riding lessons. Well, every time I started looking at apartments, my mom poo-poo'd the idea and made it easy for me to live at home. I was the last of nine, with a spread of nineteen years between the oldest and the youngest, me. Mom didn't know how to live without a kid in the house. Luckily, my bro moved back home to work on his PhD at Tulsa University . . . but I still didn't move out UNTIL a woman I worked on night shift with reamed me up one side and down the other about my 'sponging'. I hated her. BUT it was the kick in the A$$ I needed to move out on my own.
--That night shift woman was the catalyst I needed to make the right decision and move out on my own and start my life.

Case C: This isn't my story, but I did have a part in it. A writer friend called, or I called her, whatever. Anyway, she was stalled on her second story and didn't know what to do because another character kept barging into her thoughts. I told her to write that character's story. I also suggested she not let anyone read her rough draft because I felt she needed to get her emotions on the page without someone else diluting her writing with their input. I don't think she followed this piece of advice, but it worked out well. She finished the novella in a month, and she started shopping it around. Just this last month, she sold that story to Ellora's Cave. YAY, ASH!!
--I like to think I was the catalyst who gave her 'permission' to step away from her WIP (work-in-progress) to write that novella.

So, hindsight is really twenty-twenty because we can reflect upon the moment and the events surrounding a decision.

Something to think about.

Write on!