Episode 50: The Joy of Losing Control and Finding Rainbows

We know that the key to staying safe on a motorcycle is control.  Keeping your bike under control as the road and weather changes.  

It’s one of many things that’s vastly different from driving in a car with 4 wheels that keep their grip most of the time.  Air Conditioning to keep you comfortable.  In the car, we seldom have to think about what to do if it rains.  Just keep going right?  Not necessarily so on the motorcycle.  We have to always know how to make the necessary adjustments for changes in the weather like rain that turns a smooth dirt road into a surface as slippery as ice.  

We have to ride with some degree of confidence that all will go ok in the end.  If we were scared all the time, well, we’d probably just sell the bike and switch to pickleball.  Nothing against pickleball, but as for quitting? We won’t do that.  

We love motorcycling too much.  It means too much to our heart and soul.  We accept the fact that we don’t have 100% control in motorcycling, or in life for that matter.  And that’s OK.  Maybe even that’s the best part!  Let’s talk about it.  Stay tuned!

I like the comedian Steven Wright who said this:  “You know when you're sitting on a chair and you lean back so you're just on two legs and you lean too far so you almost fall over but at the last second you catch yourself? I feel like that all the time...”  That’s hilarious.  But I’ll bet that you know someone like that.  Terrified by the unknown in life.

My friend described how, when he gets stressed out, when the loads of life just feel too heavy, or when he simply runs out of solutions for the problems at work, he makes a fresh cup of coffee and goes outside.  Outside, he sits in a comfortable chair, takes a sip of his favorite coffee blend, and does nothing.  He does nothing.  

He went on to describe how things start happening though all around him, in stages, even though he does nothing to initiate them.  He just sits.  He watches and he listens.  First he recognizes the quiet, then after a moment, he recognizes the activity of Nature.  

At some point, he doesn’t know when, but after a minute or two passes, he’ll hear a bird sing.  He might be lucky enough to spot that bird in the tree.  Then he sees that bird joined by another one, also singing.  Then, at some point, a rabbit feels safe enough to hop out into the yard, take a blade of grass and chew on it in the sun for a while.  Then into the scene, enters the clowns. The squires.  Usually in pairs. Chasing each around the yard, then at amazing speed up and down the trees.

Then my friend says, something really amazing, almost magical happens.  His stress is all but gone.  Solutions for problems he was facing at work, yeah, magically appear in his head.

I was riding through Monument Valley in Arizona.  Beautiful out there.  Open roads.  Long stretches.  Normally, you can see way down the road, for miles.  But not this particular afternoon.  Up ahead, looked like the road just ended at a solid black wall.  A wall of water.  There was no shelter around anywhere.  Just me, the road and the wall I was about to ride through.  

So I made sure that me and my gear were waterproof.  Stopped to zip everything up then proceeded down the road, into the wall.  From daylight to dark in just seconds.  Then, the first surprise.  Lightning.  Followed shortly by the second surprise.  Hail.  

But just as quickly as I entered that wall of water, lightning and hail, me and my bike emerged from the other side. We entered a beautiful sunny day that I was now, riding into.  A sunny day that was always there, just beyond the storm.  

And then this happened.  I’ll never forget, looking in my rearview mirror at the black wall of water I had just ridden through.  There behind me too was an amazing rainbow on full display.  A bright, beautiful rainbow maybe saying to me, “How was that?”  

I close with this awesome quote.  Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass: it’s about learning how to ride in the rain!  My friends it will rain when we ride and in our lives from time to time.  Let’s keep going.  Keep going.  There may be a beautiful rainbow waiting to say hello.

Thank you for listening.  I wish you peace.  I wish you love.

Music by Geoff Harvey from Pixabay