Journeys

Some time ago I took a long bike ride, long enough to be lost and frustrated and find myself sitting on a bench staring at the ocean. It was a pretty view, but I couldn’t appreciate it.  A man sat down next to me, also on a bike ride, and started talking spontaneously.  That happens to you on bike ride. People find you more approachable.

He said, ‘You know the good thing about long bike rides and journeys is what you learn and what you learn about yourself. The problem with them is you begin to think they're the only way to have a journey. When you're done with this ride, you're going to think the learning is done, the journey’s done, the adventure’s done, and the mistake we make is to not realize every day is a journey. Every day has new things to see, to discover, to experience and learn. Every day has a view like this (he gestured at the water), but we miss it when we return from the journey.  We go home. We fall back into the regular life, and we don't keep ourselves open to the journey. That's the trick because you spend most your life in the everyday journey and not much of it on the big, broad exciting one. That's the trick--to be in the journey every day.’

Then he got up, and he got on his bike and rode away.