Wind Resistance~

I live in a place that enables me to be out in the sunshine and air 365 days out of the year. This is quite possibly the main reason I chose to live here. I have learned many things about myself over these last few years especially--one of them being that I must (yes, must!) get at least some pure, Vitamin D laden sunshine every day....and I soak it up like a sponge...yes, I love it~

Riding my bike is one of those things that has always been a favorite exercise. I find it cathartic and exhilarating. I love to pedal fast, fast, fast...the wind whipping your hair and the salty air of the ocean stinging your face, yet you never mind because you feel invigorated--you feel alive!

Yesterday morning I set out once again on a favorite ride of mine. It takes me along the waterside all the way to this beautiful peninsula point of the bay, and it is breathtaking. What I find interesting is that, no matter how many times I go on this ride, I always downplay the extreme difference of the ride TOWARDS the peninsula versus the return ride. Allow me to explain: going to the point the wind is at my back and the giddy expectation of arrival at the delightful destination spurs me onward with great anticipation and joy! I always arrive, a personified portrait of zen and tranquility, and remind myself how much I LOVE this ride! As I sit and bask in the sunshine and have all my endorphins surging through my veins....I exhale and know, "This is bliss!"

However (no, it never fails!) I soon come down to earth and realize the truth in the saying, "What goes up, must come down" or, in my case, "What goes forth, must return"... so...I head back home. The SECOND I turn my face homeward and take that initial pedal forward, I know. Oh, I feel it in my bones!--this is going to be a long ride home.

The wind yesterday was worse than most days...as I pedaled, I looked to my right and left and realized I was barely moving....cars whizzed past the poor "effed" cyclist caught in the windstorm (I swear Hawaii had a tsunami--at least the friggin' winds!--I don't care if it wasn't officially announced--I was in a hurricane of gale force!). The looks on these peoples' faces ranged from polite pity, to commiserating compassion, to downright comical hilarity as they came upon the spectacle I am sure I created. *Small girl, relatively small bike, huge gale-force winds, futile (yet furious and frantic!) pedaling!* (The theme song from the Wizard of Oz-- when the wicked witch of the west was chasing Dorothy on her bike resounds in my ears: "Doot doot doo doo doot doo- dooo!!!!) *pedal pedal pedal*

As yet another huge blast of wind bitchslaps me in the face, I remind myself how much I HATE this ride! I exhale and know, "This is HELL!"

I somehow make it home....beaded with sweat, cherry-red faced, wet spaghetti-noodled legs...and collapse into a quivering mound of gelatinous humanoid goo on my living room floor (Forget making it to the couch...it is entirely across the room...psh~) I slide into the sleep of the dead, greedily grasping every last minute that I can before the alarm rocks me violently back into reality. Torn from my sweat induced slumber....I awaken reluctantly, yet all aglow with the sweet surge of seratonin. I head to work (on my bike again) and my workday begins.

This morning I am awake early again. I contemplate my morning ride. How I am looking forward to it! I do love that view...and the ride back is not so bad...but, oh, that view is spectacular...and so worth it...

(and I realize, in this moment, upon this thought/ mindset, how very much all of life is like this). Wind, be damned!