I Want To Ride My Bicycle, I Want To Ride My Bike.

Last week I decided to go for a bike ride. Normally not my pick, I prefer to run -but I had to get outside and some how the idea of riding and feeling the wind against my face was just the ticket-I needed to feel FREE.

It was already sticky out….unusually hot for 7am. The sun was blazing beating my shoulders like a warm massage. I smiled and crept across the street heading for the bike lane-this was gonna be great.

Suddenly, with each turn of the pedals memories of my childhood rides overloaded my senses. I could smell the jersey shore -ocean, seagulls, tar. I Envisioned fresh squeezed orange juice waiting for me at the end of my journey. I distinctly heard my sisters voices laughing and the faint scream “ice cream” from the ice cream man somewhere in the distance…..

I like many others have found comfort in old things under new circumstances.

Funny how there are some skills we never forget how to do after being taught and even though I had tucked bike riding into a very distant corner of my mind …..I enjoyed being reminded. The past has a way of throwing its arms around you, enveloping you just at the right moment- if you allow it.

In my adult life I have prescribed to a new way of thought- short term memory is best- it allows us to move forward, eliminate rumination and clear more space to be present however that doesn’t mean I choose  to banish the nostalgia of simpler times, safer times and the moments that have shaped my life…….