Bicycle!

Yesterday I rode a bike!!

This is my brother's bike; he lives in Toronto so I'm going to adopt it for a while. It has a bell and 3 gears and a rat-trap and is a beautiful emerald green.

I haven't sat on a bike for many years. As a kid I was always riding a bike, but I gave it up when I became a self-conscious teenager. Maybe it was because somebody once yelled out the window of his car, "Get your fat ass off the road." I was pretty plump in grades 8 and 9, and that self-image still sticks to me.

But yesterday, I got up on that bike and rode down my favourite windy road to the gorgeous beach at the end. It is a hilly, rolling road, with cliffs and thick forest on one side and the ocean on the other. Sweet fragrant shade alternating with shimmery bright sun. Blackberries slowly ripening in dense thickets; tall grass softening every surface.

It was totally silent except for eagles chirping their high whistling songs, and my own involuntary hoots of joy. My heart was whooshing, whooshing, humming, humming...

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