Why do we do these things?

Why did one hundred and forty people sign up for this weeklong bicycle ride? Who knows - probably for one hundred and forty different reasons! I know the first reason that I signed up was to pursue a dream. Luckily by the time we'd arrived in Niagara Falls I'd also rationalized that I must want to attempt biking five hundred miles in a week!

These days I'm glad to be out on adventures again. I've been meeting lots of friendly folks and making some new friends. I had dreamed that this would somehow happen in a vacuum - that my history would fade away as a "new" me emerged. I guess there's no such thing. At least in my case, I seem to be the sum of my past experiences.

Something else happened during the week that I'd never anticipated. Somehow the fears of the past year are fading away. It's as if in the past six months my thoughts and emotions were trying to go all different directions left-right-front-back-up-down, but somewhere on this adventure things gradually shifted into alignment. This was during the week in which I lost track of the days, lost track of our whereabouts, and maybe lost track of myself a little bit.

I finished the ride with a sense of accomplishment and with a new sense of peace, contentment and focus. In the end, none of my initial goals had been met but I received so much more! The universe couldn't have given me better lessons than I found in the company of all the positive, joyful people who had planned, biked, and supported the ride. (thanks!)