That Essence Rare

Something happens when you get dialed in. The field of vision funnels into the immediate. The repitition of deep inhales and exhale drown out all other sound. Instead of heading down a path you now are  in it. No, that’s not quite right.  It’s more than that. You become part of it, connected. Passersby, the scenery, that smell you loved that morning after the night’s rain, it might as well not be there. Because now it’s nothing more than cardboard cutouts tipping over as you roll by.

Motorcyclists tell me they reach this state on the the long runs when the sun’s since set and the cops have all gone to bed.  It’s here where they open up the throttle north of ninety miles an hour and the engine’s headers drown out all the sound. The engine’s vibration matches the heart’s rate. It’s here – this rush of the calm that comes with the absorption of action that fuels the journey.

Maybe this is it. Maybe this is why I’m still at it - why we’re all still at it. Maybe what we’re all searching for is this feeling of the long run, or of clicking into the skis at the startgate and just feeling so dialed in.

To hold onto these moments, maybe that is the day’s lesson. To find those days when you’re not just traveling along a road, but in it. It’s like those kodachrome conversations you share with your best friends, where words reflect from one to another into shared expression. Seek moments like these out; there’s not so many of them. So appreciate them. Run to them. And don’t look back.

There’s a saying – that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I don’t believe that. Anger or envy  or anything else like this cannot sustain you. I think the things that try to hold you back harden you with anger and sadness.

No, strength comes from the good things. It’s those perfect moments with your family and with your friends, and those times where you find the satisfaction of hard work and a job well done.  These are the things to hold onto. It’s for these moments we incur the tenderest of debts and deepen the well of our strength.