The cold dark winter never seemed to end and when Mother
Nature finally gave a tease of spring and the roads near my house cleared of ice and snow I hopped on my bike for some exercise and to soak up some natural vitamin D.
My sitting muscles had not been on a bike seat in over 5 months so at about the 6 mile point of my ride I was needing to remove that afflicted body part from the torcher device they called an ergonomic bike seat.
I picked a spot to stop and rest next to a small stream that now with the spring melt was trying to act like class 3 white water. I “carefully” sat on a bench just off the road in the warmth of the sun, my pasty white arms and legs exposed to the sun like flesh solar collectors trying to recharge my batteries.
Watching the water flow past a molecule at a time to obscure places, the sun’s rays dancing off the water and making me squint I refocused my eyes down the road that crossed the stream. I noticed someone else out on this sun filled day walking a dog.
My mind drifted with my eyesight from dog walker to stream, to a crows shadow crossing in front of me and then back to the dog walker.
As time passed I could make out more details. The dog walker was an elderly woman still wearing her winter parka and those big dark sunglasses that cover your regular glasses and she used a cane to help her walk. The dog was timeworn with grey spreading back from its nose past its ears and down its chest. The dog was at the end of its leash not pulling the woman along but leading the way.
I closed my eyes enjoying the warmth of the sun on my face and after some time I reopened them and noticed the women and the dog were moving at a glacial pace but were getting closer. When they got to the bridge that crossed the stream I waved but the women was looking straight ahead and I thought she had not noticed me. With the leash still taught the dog was the first to cross the end of the bridge nearest me and I waved again and said “hello!” The woman was still focused straight ahead and I thought she hadn’t heard me until she stopped and said “be glad you’re here to see this” and the dog squatted and peed and that seemed the equivalent of a urinary mic drop. The dog and the women turned to head back the way they came from.
I felt the power of the statement from the walking mystic and “be glad you were here to see this” was running on a loop in my mind. I knew the statement had meaning if I just took it literally but I suspected there was more. Waves of electrical impulses moved across my brain like a lightning storm crossing the Great Plains - there were more things I need to see and do.
I needed to go to New York and run with the bulls down Wall Street.
To eat pot roast with vegans
To play Twister with lepers in India
To drink water out of a hose with alcoholics on a brewery tour
To send my thoughts out to stud so they can breed with rainbows
To color inside the lines with invisible crayons
To ride a tilt a whirl through time and not throw up
To become my best friend -
But before I could start I had to get my aching ass back on that bike seat and ride that 6 miles back home … it was the cycle of life.
