I feel fortunate to still be able to ride my bike several days each week, after school and on the weekends. Last week, during our Thanksgiving break from school, I was able to ride about 60 miles during my 5 days off. Although the rides are somewhat limited on the actual mileage I can go with daylight hours being shortened up quite a bit, I still am glad to say that I can go. And I guess given "old lefty's" unfortunate experience of a year ago, I should be really glad to be able to sit upright on a bike again.
I got the chance to ride when I got home from school today~totally at the last minute and unplanned by me. It was later when I finally found the finish of the day and when I drove in the drive at about 4:15, the sun was already making it's descent into the western horizon. I thought, "man I wish I could still get in a ride today" and before I knew it, I had changed clothes and was standing by my bike in the drive way. Even though I knew I couldn't ride for long it really didn't matter to me. I just wanted to ride and so I did.
As I got to the "turn around" point on the Martinez Bike Trail, I had this sudden realization of just how precious the chance to get on a bike felt today. I knew I was working with "borrowed" time here and basically from the moment the thought of riding smacked me upside the head at 4:10, I would have very little time to decide if I was going or not. A wasted moment, here or there, and I would have been up the proverbial "creek without a paddle". Never been a big fan of riding in pitch blackness, especially with no lighting. Remember, my bucket list is a wish for "life" not for "death".
Never have I really given much thought to how precious and wonderful a ride on a bike can be for someone like me. Yet after having considered it, I realize that I've had several of those kinds of rides over the years. The very first rides after the "crashes of '87, '00, '01, and '02"and the "ever infamous curb jumping nightmare of 2012", as well as the huge feat of pushing off for the first time last year between the surgeries on "old lefty" have all been the very precious to me.
Having spent probably 75% of my 57 years of living not being particularly interested in doing any kind of sport, I finally now have discovered what I might well have liked doing all along~Cycling :) So until I can no longer physically do it or my children take my bicycle away from me (LOL, hey there actually was thought of that after I broke my arm last year~yet they changed their minds.) then I intend to just keep on going.
It's morning time now and instead of being the next to the last day of the great month of November, it is 5:30 a.m. on the VERY last day of the month. Seldom do I ever begin a blog post on one day and finish it the next, but last night I surrendered to the "gods of sleepiness" and actually laid my head down on the pillow at 9:00. It's an "old person thing" and you young folks someday will understand and say the same I suppose.
I checked the obituary column of the Hutchinson News this morning, just as I do every morning, and didn't happen to catch my name among those who lives have now ended on this earth. Reading the obits is just a normal part of my newspaper reading routine and perhaps you could say the same for you as well. No matter how many of them I have read over the course of the last, say 40 years or so, I am still soberly reminded of just how precious is this gift of "breathing in and out" each day. The average person, at least according to "Ask.com", takes in between 17, 280 and 23,040 breaths per day and for the most part we don't even realize we are doing it. The only time we ever get really excited about the process is when all of a sudden the taking in of one of those breaths causes us discomfort or worse.
I feel as if I am living my life these days with a gentle sense of urgency. Realizing that "time goes quick", "life is short", "life flies no matter whether you are having fun or not", or any other saying you can imagine, I try every day to be mindful of how each day is spent. Whether you have a "bucket list" or not, whether you are young, old or anywhere in between, please take advantage of every blessed opportunity that comes your way. So, if you finally took that fishing and hiking trip to Minnesota this past summer, that's great and I am so happy for you! But don't wait another 10 years before you go once more. Perhaps you have just finished college and would love dearly some day to get your master's degree....well, how long are you going to wait to do it? Or you might even be one who has the chance to go home and visit family at the holidays. You're asking yourself, "Is it worth the travel for only a few days to visit? What if the weather is bad? Nah, I'll just go in the springtime." But what if the springtime doesn't come for you or for anyone who really is looking forward to seeing you? When it is said by some that we should live each day as if it is the last one we will ever receive, well you know they are right.
The clock on the wall say it's time to get out of my pajamas and get ready for school. If you are reading this, you made it to Friday too! I wish for you all only the best that life has to offer~and I surely hope that all of us have many days ahead of us in which to enjoy this life. If today WERE my last day here on earth, then I would want to leave you with this message~"Thank you most sincerely for being my friends and for loving and accepting me for who I am, just as I am. You know I never thought of that before. It's kind of nice to be able to be "yourself" and still have lots of friends that are behind you and alongside of you each day.
November 30th, 2012~a great day to be alive in~
After my accident last year, I never begin a ride without pausing, even if I AM in a hurry, to ask God to go alongside me. Sorry that I had to be really hurt in order to come that realization and thank goodness for the "do-over".
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