From this Day Forth [from BA 42-300]

It doesn’t stop. Nor will it ever. Really. There will always be wind coming from both directions. There will always be hills, and flat tires, and forgotten locks, and snapped spokes, and sore legs, and honking cars, and wrong turns. There will be no one to ride with when you need them most. There will be frigidity when you forget your gloves. There will be heat when you bring your jacket.But all this makes no difference because this is it, this is the world in which we live and there really are no excuses except for those we make in order to justify something we will later wish we hadn’t justified. This is simply what we have to contend with. This is what we have to learn to overcome, that’s all. It is a broken home where truth is difficult to discern and where time continually shoves us on from behind.

And yet, there are cracks in the sidewalk from which hardy plants grow. There are roads that are smooth and flat and long. There are new moments and choices. There are hidden places to which we can retreat and regroup and regain our composure. So let’s go there even for just an afternoon and enjoy wine from our water bottles and ask those questions we promised we wouldn’t ask because they have no answers. Let us be that which we want to be. Let us look up and see not the sky falling, but us rising up to meet it. Let us from this day forth be bicyclists.