Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Biking around

So tonight I decided to take my 3rd night bike ride around the neighborhood. And it was perfect, maybe one of the most serene, mentally refreshing, experiences of my life. Here's how it went:

There was a light drizzle, not even heavy enough to knock the spiders away. The temp. had cooled to a perfect 70ish degrees F, and I literally could not imagine a more perfect climate for a bike ride. Very few cars were out, so I had the road mostly to myself for about 1.5 hrs. Ever so often, I would find myself in pitch darkness (aside from my lame little front and rear lights, which barely produce enough light to attract the moths). And I would find in this absence of technological stimuli a soothing reprieve from that clutter of artificial sights and sounds swarming us pretty much everywhere we go. I focused on the sounds of my breathing, and of the critters seemingly right next to me, while staying alert to whatever limited vision I had in the darkness. At some point during this ride, when I was particularly atuned to all of these things, even the feel of the cool air filling my lungs was exhilarating. This really is one of the true definitions of Lucid Living, the ultra-awareness of life as it is unfolding both outside and inside yourself.

And then like a sack of rice hitting me in the face, I breathed in the noxious smell of rancid, stale ditch water, while in baffling simultaneity, headlights of several approaching cars appeared out of nowhere from both sides, blinding me for a second or two. In fact that surprise followed by the feel of a car passing right beside me totally caught me off guard as I was in this awesome state of bliss. Unfortunately that meant my biking got a little sloppy, but luckily I gained control before I swerved into the smelly ditch. Of course this added lighting now helped me see that there were a bunch of stray dogs in front of me, now barking their tops off. So I had to switch gears from lucid living to lucid 'getting the f**k out of there'. Anywho, it was an amazing ride. Got me thinking that I don't need much more than my bike and the road (maybe also a bone to throw those dogs) to be in good spirits. Also thought about how this year I'll be celebrating Christmas authentically with gentiles, though the climate totally gives it a bizarro feeling. I wonder if there will still be any Chinese food? Also, Santa in a leotard? Hopefully NOT.

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