Getting back on the bike...

My big, red, modified bicycle sits in the far corner of my living room all set to go. I've put air in the tyres, changed the saddle, lubricated the moving parts and tuned it to the best of my ability. Next to it are the specialised shoes that the modified pedals require - they look brand new, because they are or at least they were, four months ago. They've scarcely met the pedals they were bought for.

For the last six weeks, my mind sat in the far corner of my reality. I was working on remote, looking for things to do so that I wouldn't be pedalling into yet another headwind of frustration, persecution and anger. In this time the words I was writing weren't for me but for the pipers who called the tunes I was dancing to.

Getting back on the bike hasn't been easy. The first ride saw my previous shoes die, testament to dry rot; my ass hurt and my legs scream for help. I've not ridden since.

You never forget how to ride a bike. True. As far as the physical skills go, but what we forget or at least I do, is the demands that cycling places on you - the mental challenges. Doubt, motivation, surrender, euphoria and the sense of achievement when you accomplish your goal. I believe that you never forget how to write either but most of us, having lost the discipline for any time, for any reason can be loath to subject ourselves to the mental demands of the craft again. The honesty it takes, the introspection, the emotion, the rejection. Who would want to?

Me, for one. On my bike I can find a rhythm that suits me, not too testing, and coast along. I can, and often do the same on this keyboard, generally as I hack out the dross that pays me. The sweet thing about cycling though, is shifting through the gears and feeling the power surge direct from your core to your limbs transporting you ever faster to where you want to be. As so with the keys...the words begin to flow as I downshift, eager to get the ideas on paper or screen; eager to have them transport me beyond doubt and surrender to that sense of achievement.

I've been gone from my bike for a couple of months. I've been gone from my words for just about six weeks. In that time I've become pedestrian, subject to all the annoyances that watching life pass you by bring to the fore. It'll be easier for me to come back to my words, to again find my rhythm as I ride and write down my chosen path. Maybe what I should do is write about my bicycle riding.

Let's go for another ride!