Back in the Saddle Again

While I was cleared to bike again as soon as I got off crutches but it took me another 4 to 5 months to actually feel like biking. 

In reality, it took one of my bikes to be stolen to help me realize what I lost when I got hurt and come to peace with it.  The loss in mobility and inability to help at home with my 3 kids really hurt but I have to admit it was what the bike represented that hurt even more. 

What I lost was those brief feelings of freedom. 

As an adult with kids and a wife and a job and a mortgage and aging parents and friends and bills and everything else, I (and everyone else on the planet) are as caged as as any animal.  We are caged by our responsibilities.  Now while I am not going to rant about those responsibilities because I love my life and have way too much to be thankful for to actually complain with any sincerity, the ability to feel free is as rare as me staying up until 2 in the morning. 

But a simple bike ride to work or a 2 hour spin around the river gives me a brief feeling that maybe I am 15 again with nothing to worry about but where to go on Friday night.  And somehow in its most primal way my heart, head, and body know it won't last forever but something is better than nothing.  And I forget just for a little while; and I feel normal - something I don't feel while walking.

It kind of reminds of me of Buzz Lightyear.  I know I'm getting older - which means my flying days are over - but that doesn't keep me from "falling with style" every now and again. 

Lets just hope the falling is of the figurative and not the literal kind from here on out.

Thanks for reading...