Clear the Mind

My Miyata has a flat tire so I grabbed my Red Trek for the commute to work. The spongy seat, springy seat post, and the lower gearing lent a new twist to my ride. I discovered that my mind was more apt to wander. Wild daisies are sprouting along the roadside. I waved "hello" to more bike riders than I normally would have. I wonder if the more stable Trek, or just a change in bicycle, had anything to do with it.

On the ride home I pondered how I used to compose whole sentences while commuting - this was a time in my life when I was writing a novel, 20+ years ago. Descriptions jumped out at me in those "Aha" moments. When I got to work I jotted them on paper and the same when I pedaled homeward. The mental clarity was amazing.

Shasta Daisies from my garden.

And so it was that I also needed to process the death of a 12 year old, a classmate of my oldest son. I discovered that my son knew him only moments before I had to leave for work. The boy drowned in a popular swimming hole, a place my children had been at the previous week. As a parent, the how and why of such a tragedy belly flips in my brain, scrambling rational thoughts into pudding. Pedaling home helped me calm down and decide how best to help my son through the grieving. We will go to the memorial service. And coincidentally, we are also pedaling to a campground with other families that same day, an event that had been on the agenda for weeks. I hope the cycling, swimming, and camaraderie will help all of us move forward.