BIKE

This beautiful green bicycle and I were meant to be together. I haven't told my brother (the owner) yet.

Yesterday I spent the whole afternoon and early evening riding Bike, and as the day wore on, Bike seemed to became more responsive. The hills were less threatening and the bumps less jarring. Brakes slowed us down at beautiful spots quite naturally, without effort. I'll have to explain to my brother that to this lovely green machine, I am… I think I am… a bike whisperer.

I love Bike! We went through a forest path that was sun-drenched-luminous and vibrating with huge and tiny life. The air, though invisible, was dark green and tasted like newness. Then there was a long road without cars that led to a barnacle beach. And then another road that I'd never noticed before - it led straight through woods. On my city days, I would never imagine that such roads still exist. A battered stretch of concrete sneaking through rainforest? Fairy-tales. But there it was, and it took me to a high, rocky coastline. I took a snapshot but it's only a little ghost of the scene. I just… I don't know. No sense trying to describe it. There are little seeds that float in the air. These seeds go into you and explode gently in your throat; they are filled with creation and joy which waft up into your brain and sink into your heart. And there isn't anything else that you could ever want or need.

Bike busted a shoe on way home. One too many bumpy dirt-paths. But I was in a meadow, and was ready to walk anyhow - so I took him home the slow way.

I've always kept journals; when I was a kid my entries from the summer time always ended like this: "IT WAS AN AWESOME DAY!!!!!!"

I'm 8 years old again.

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