A fall is just a spontaneous moment of unexpected flight before you hit new ground….wink!
Yes, that was the lesson of the Universe as I found myself yesterday suspended in an unexpected “flyover” (that moment when you find yourself in mid-flip over the handlebars waiting to see where you will land…). We were within the final 5 miles of our ride… since turnout was a bit low, we had been grouped with some of the most accomplished riders in the club, so this ride had quickly evolved into one of the fastest rides ever … it was an absolutely GLORIOUS day…PERFECT weather…beautiful clouds…the terrain was windy with quite a few (pant, wheeze, pant) hills to climb…the sand could be quite thick and treacherous but we were CRUISING!! I was feeling good….no, I was feeling GREAT!!
It was one of those riveting moments when you realize that you have grown… you have blossomed into something more… you have become an even better version of you…. in this case, I realized that I have really become an infinitely rider than I had been even a year ago. Even the more advanced riders were commenting about it… I was zooming and loving it….!!
We had just stopped for a quick decision at a fork in the road then hopped back on our bikes for a rather sharp decline… I began to hear a lot of the guys ahead of me jokingly saying “weeee weeeee” and then there “it” was… the Universe’s little joie du jour for me… hee hee… It came in the form of a rather pronounced series of roots/small logs embedded in the path that created a series of steps in the middle of a pretty fast descent… even without any additional dimensions to the challenge, it would have been tricky to navigate at that speed, but couple it with the patch of deep sand in between the roots and well….I was suddenly in flight feeling like Mary Poppins…. “practically perfect”, with heavy emphasis in this case on “practically”…..!
Interestingly enough though, in spite of the rather large new bruises…in spite of the wee bit of blood…my desire was to hop immediately on my bike and fly even faster…. so that’s what I did…! Amazingly, I even managed to catch back up with the guys who were the faster riders… my mind, my body and my bike became one… I was exhausted, but I was elated… there was a rhythm and a rightness to each obstacle…and a glory in each tiny achievement… the moment was in no way about having fallen… it became totally about having bounced up and moved forward with new drive and new determination…
As I pulled into the parking lot suddenly noticing that I was the lone “B-” rider still with the “B/B+” pack, it struck me that the glory of the adventure had not been eroded by the fall. Instead, the glory of the success had been enhanced with the discovery that not only can we get up when we fall, it can be these falls that add to our momentum. Yes, for a moment as I flew through the air, the wind had literally been at my back— and before my feet even touched the ground (or should I say, my back, my shoulders, my legs…BIG THUMP!! HA HA…), my spirit had decided that I wasn’t going to lose that sense of wondrous flight just because I took a momentary hit….
With a smile and a wee bit of drama, our dear Mother Earth sent me out the door to play…saying “jump in those puddles”, “run down those hills”… “fall down every now and again–it’s good for the spirit”…” because in these challenges lie the promise that not only do you have the strength to get up, you have the tenacity to create “more”…the bubbling desire to dream more….to love more….to live more….and more and more and more…
Life is as much as the glory of being thrown over the handlebars as it is about the victory of the finish! If today is a day when you get thrown, so be it! Grab that bike and race on forward…. And even if you are alone in the forest, remember that you always have your own mighty voice to cheer yourself on… wink!
Winks and Nods,
Tink
From Nowhere to Now Here 