forget

it's a funny thing how easy it is to forget that there are 365 days in a year and on an average, 25, 550 days in a life.

Because whatever is going on right now seems like the totality of the world and of life.

I have a friend who teases me that when I get stressed I fall into a "the world is ending" singsong. Which, as much as I fuss, is true. But I really don't take it all that seriously either. There have only been scant times when I have fallen under the sway of my own chicken little internal rants.

In the midst of my rather large mess I put everything down today, filled a bottle with water, made sure I had air in the tires and went out to one of the meetup groups I belong to for a 35+ mile bike ride. Why? I love my bicycle, movement does me good, getting out with people does me better and best of all - it costs nothing to ride a bike which is right up my budget alley.

I don't know if I have talked much about meetup.com but its sort of like the craigslist of doing things. In each city people make these meetup groups according to what they like doing and then...hang on this is the complicated part...they go do them. Well, most of the time, lots of the time people sign up and say they will show up and then get all confused about how that works and don't make it. But I belong to a biking group that actual goes.

We are a bit of a mess. Not a one of us (well, there are one or two) are equipped in spandex and properly labeled with italian words. We have road bikes, mountain bikes, expensive bikes, bikes from Walmart - it doesn't matter. The lead person sets a gentle pace any one can do and if you want to zoom off you can, with the understanding that at some point you stop and wait for the rest to catch up.

The lady in front of me was hysterical today, she kept commenting about all the riders in their spandex going "someday I want to look like I really ride a bike too." And then the leader got a flat tire and it took four of us to figure out how to change it. I mean, this is not a group that much cares about impressing anyone. And hey, we go out and do miles and miles and often on a really regular basis. Honestly, half of us, even though we have ridden together a fair amount don't even know each other's names or anything about each other's lives - because it really doesn't matter when you are just out riding.

I had to ride down 10 miles early this am to meet them. I forgot, and how simple it is to forget, that along the bike path I took to get to the meetup point, that at 7 in the morning on the saturday I am riding between the bay and the lagoons. All the fishermen were out, the mist was rising and the water was glassy still. I forgot how simply beautiful the area is.

I ride a lot in the city and that is different, hard to look around when you are bullying cars and controlling the road. But this...this was a beautiful reminder. And I found myself thinking of all the people that I know that I wish I could have with me looking at these things. Just looking. Just seeing the same beauty together.

All our "bad" days are really just moments in a much longer time frame. It is best not to forget that or, alternatively, to make sure that you have a regular place to return to that will remind you that life takes a long time to live.

c.2010 Cassandra Tribe. All Rights Reserved.