Right Bike, Right Mind

Sixteen years ago I got my first motorcycle, a 1985 Honda Shadow 500. This bike was alot of fun, I learned on it and honed my riding skills. I rode that bike for a couple of years until I found that I needed a bigger bike with a little more power. I was taking longer trips and starting to ride with friends that had larger bikes and I wanted to keep up with the pack. I eventually bought a new bike with a larger engine that would help me pass cars in tight situations. It was a more comfortable bike and I could do longer rides on it which was my goal. I enjoyed that motorcycle for a couple of years. The more riding I did the more I wanted to do and the idea of traveling across the United States on a motorcycle began to enter my mind.
 I remember a trip I took up to Vermont with a friend. We were riding up route 7 in Massachusetts and got stuck behind a tractor trailer on a two lane highway. My friend decided to pass the trailer in the other lane and I followed him. As he buzzed ahead and back into the right lane I was traveling neck and neck with this trailer and I had my throttle completely open. As I looked ahead I could see an oncoming car in the distance and I needed to get around this truck asap. I creeped past the truck and scooted over to the proper lane nearly missing the oncoming car. This was when I decided once again maybe its time for an even faster more powerful motorcycle. If I was going to continue to take bigger trips that might put me in these situations where I needed the power to avoid cars and trucks with a quicker repsonse it was time to invest in a vehicle that could handle that.
2002...enter the new Harley. I've been riding this beast ever since, and I must say, I can count on this bike for all of the different kinds of riding I've done. I cruise on back roads in comfort, zip through traffic with ease and take on the occasional gravel road 1000 miles away from home. I've relied on this bike to start up and get me to where I need to go, it's taken me on some incredible adventures to explore the outside world and it gives me time to look at my own mind. I've become a skillful rider on this bigger, heavier bike and done some of the most challenging rides on it. A couple years and close to 30,000 miles later that beast has provided me with some of the most memorable times of my life. The bike has always fired up and been a solid reliable source of not only transportation but real enjoyment.
Of all the places I've gone and explored, this year will perhaps be the most memorable experience with the motorcycle. At the end of September, in the midst of a beautiful fall season when the thoughts of trying to ride as much as possible were constant, I crashed the bike. The crash seemed to be what might be the apex of a somewhat difficult year but it's been followed up by even more difficult situations.
Choosing a motorcycle to provide me with enough strength to get to where I need has proven to be a much easier decision than those I need to make within myself to get through the tougher times. Life's roads have gotten bumpier, there are more obstacles in my way and it seems as if I don't have the steam to pass them by. I don't think I can upgrade my mind to pass these times by any faster. In fact it may be time to downgrade to a slower version of my mind. A much more patient one and much more mindful one. There's tractor trailers everywhere and maybe it's time to back off a little and let them get to where they are going. There are plenty of side roads that offer choices to get you where you need to be. They are less traveled and move a bit slower but they give us a chance to look at ourselves and to listen closely to see how we are operating, even if it's not our bigger, faster, stronger version.

What is the best vessel to get us through our life, especially the tough times? While rolling on the throttle and passing things by is pretty exciting and effective, it's not always the answer. In these times where we are flooded with noise and opinions and distractions from all directions there has got to be some time to go down those quiet side roads and pull off for a little while. Maybe it's there we can take time and find that we are the vessel, and have to fill it with whatever provides us with the right amount of strength to get through a day, a couple of days or even 365 days.

Be well...
Jim