It’s a well-used cliché that cycling is a moving meditation.
Read on to find out how my bike, T325D has been a source of solitude and salvation in this difficult time.
Training Camp in Spain
I have just come back from what our cycling club jokingly calls a ‘training camp’ in Catalunya Spain. I got to ride on the butter smooth tarmac laid for the professional races under a warm, but not too hot, Spanish sun and relax at the end of the day in a steam room or at the bar with my club mates.
The week started full of promise and the routes were ticked off, marred only by one swerve to avoid a wet afternoon which of course we elected to spend in the bar. I’m not training for anything ‘big’ this year so I have been taking it a bit easier and I wasn’t quite as sprightly up the climbs as I could have been but it didn’t matter, I was content to be left alone for a few moments ( ok sometimes longer) as I tapped up the climbs without pain or pace to be met by my riding buddies at the top. It was the order of things. For a middle-aged woman whose QOM tally is dwindling, riding is often about moments alone as your mates drop you on a climb then you cream them on the descent.
Tense News
This week away I was waiting to hear if my job was going to fall victim of the US Republican Administrations cutting of aid budgets as my organisation is heavily reliant on US funding to deliver its live saving work for children. Comedy timing or ironic coincidence, the afternoon I was due to receive my notice and the whole of Spain has a power outage and I couldn’t get email or dial into the call scheduled to share the news!... Is the whole world f**g with me and could someone please rid us of that ginger twat. I wont rant here about the devastating loss of life for thousands of children and their families at having their healthcare, education and protection services taken away without plan, process or warning but its been somewhat of a shock to us all in the aid sector and now I am paying the price. Yes, I lost my job.
Time for some moving meditation
My moving meditation will now take on a whole new critical role for me as I spend my pedalling hours working through my options, and thankfully, I have both privilege and opportunity, the dilemma is just over the decisions and actions needed to make those realities.
I might be pedalling a bit more this summer and as I do so I will try to do so with courage, dignity and integrity so as to never fall so low as to let a world growing in fascism and nationalistic protectionism undermine the determination and strength of good people who still believe in helping others and bringing joy and tolerance in the face of hate and greed.
Ride bikes, be happy.
