Life is like...

Not a box of chocolates, who thought up that nonsense? You know which one you're going to get if you look at the leaflet! 


No. Life is like riding a bicycle. Funny metaphor for someone who can't ride one, but there it is. You ride along with the wind in your hair, and you're happy and free and it's a bit of work going up hills, and then you go down them and you feel like you're flying. Until you wobble, until you feel like you're going to fall. And suddenly you remember the road beneath your wheels. The road you've forgotten about, and you know that if you fall, then that road which helps you to fly now, that road will tear your skin, will rip it away, just like peeling an orange, it will try to catch you, try to hold you, and your face will be dragged along it as the road bites it, rips it, tears it...


And then you're afraid. You know that you're okay, but suddenly you have to concentrate, you have to think, you think too much and you hold onto the handlebars too tight and you can't make your legs pedal right, and you wobble, and you can't get straight again, and you're weaving like a drunken man, and you can't straighten up, and you know that all you have to do is not be scared, but you're so scared that you can't stop, you can't ride straight and now you can't think straight, and you're so afraid of the road that you've forgotten, it's still holding you up. 


All you have to do is trust yourself, but you're so afraid of falling that you can't. You can't trust the road, or yourself, and you know that somewhere there is someone who loves you, someone who can wrap you up in their arms and keep you safe, and make all the fear go away. But you can't get to them, because you're too scared, you're so scared of falling that you can't make yourself safe. 


You're so scared that you can't see the most important thing.