Making Life Go Slower

Ever get to the end of a summer and wonder how it managed to whiz by before you had a chance to enjoy it? It’s happened to me too. But it’s not happening now. Nor did it happen last summer. Why? You know the answer. I immerse myself in the summer every day. From a bike, the summer seems long and full. When it ends, I don’t feel like I’ve missed anything. Instead the next season in the air becomes the new exciting development. Fall is my most thrilling season and I won’t be sorry when it comes. Winter? Not as fun – I ain’t gonna lie. Still, even in winter, I feel I am experiencing life more completely and fully when I’m out there in the weather, whatever it is.

My mother just called to tell me to go out and fill my tank with gas because the closing down of the oil field in Prudhoe Bay is going to shoot gas prices up past $4 a gallon. I told her I’d gladly take her advice but my tank’s still full from when I filled it three weeks ago.

I feel like such an ant when I read all the depressing bad news about how humans are wrecking the world. And we are all wrecking it, even those of us who don’t want to, because of the systems that have been set up. Riding my bike is this one miniscule way I can say “NO, I’m not participating in that.” It’s so, so small, but I’m the only person I have any control over. Even if my own actions are too small to make a dent, at least I can feel that I’m not contributing to all the madness, all the time.

Yesterday I took an alternate route and ran into an overhanging tree. My helmet visor saved my eyes, so all I got was the pungent smell of the flowers that covered the tree. It was so delicious that I turned around and rode through it again, and then a few more times, until I became aware that a man sitting on his front steps was peering at me. I dislike being peered at, so I left, but not before taking a couple of snaps for you.

[Well, here's one, anyway. Blogger's decided not to let me post the other one right now for some reason. Maybe later.]