hold on loosely

this one's for you, M.

went for an early morning bike ride. wanted cleveland, wanted the metroparks where i used to get up early on such glorious summer mornings and pound out a few hours solo on the paved trail... riding fast, head down, strong stride once the quads warm, and forget it all. instead, i found an urban fabric that required constant attention to cars and terrain. i headed for the park... there's an asphalt path around the lake! it took me all of 4 minutes to circumvent, so i turned off onto a gravel path leading into the woods. now i hate ("c., we don't say hate." yes, mom.) riding on gravel... especially big chunky gravel like this was... until i remembered that i knew how: loose in the saddle, relax the grip, give the handlebars some play, keep the bike in a general straight trajectory and let natural synergy between body & bike handle the rest. ahh! grasshoppers flitting, pine smelling, sun dappling - pick that gaze up and look around!

thinking: how much of it do we define based on past experience AND WHAT WE THINK WE WANT before we ever even give the present moment a fighting chance?

taught my first yoga class here last night. felt uprooted, awkward, verbose, insincere sounding. heard how much the students loved it afterward. ridiculous, i tell ya. i read them this:

"...we live in duality. We constantly affirm [good & bad]. We call one thing pleasurable and another painful. We label and file and compartmentalize everything we see. Our behavior is directed largely to finding people who will bolster our judgments so that we can maintain them, and making enemies of those who challenge them. ...[Judgments] are created to block the flow of love through the mind. Each judgment, big or small, positive or negative, is a step away from the knowledge of the True Self. ...the relinquishment of those judgments is a step closer to Self-realization." - Yoga and the Path of the Urban Mystic by Darren Main (thanks for the loan, F. you'll get it back.)

taking advantage of this ride,
c.