For no particular reason, I was thinking about the things that I do poorly the other day. (You may be reading this and thinking about the same thing.) Last night I got on my bike and everything got a whole lot better. I’ve missed bicycling. I’ve never tried meditation, but I wonder if my bike has a similar effect (on me).
I hop on my bike, start peddling, and for long stretches I lose track of time. The sounds of cycling can be as soothing to me as a mother’s heartbeat to her child: the greased whir of the chain following it’s serpentine path, the low pitched hiss of the tires speeding along smooth asphalt – surging a little with each revolution of the pedals, the sound of the air’s gentle resistance as you push it out of the way. My mind is freed by these sounds. On my bike, my mind is free to sort through the all the junk that’s hastily collected during the day.
I suppose it’s not exactly like meditation, not that I have any idea what I’m talking about. My pop-culture knowledge of meditation suggests it’s more of a mind clearing exercise; whereas when I get on my bike it doesn’t empty, it kind of free associates. I don’t actively think about my day, it just kind of falls together. You may be reading this and saying to yourself that a lot of the parts must be fitting together poorly, and I’ll grant you that. But to me, everything seems to fit better after I’ve abused my pedals for a while. Hell, even my typing seems better afterwards.