Day 1.31 Eternity

If one avoids the discipline of the present moment, that one has shown disrespect for eternity.

I said that this morning in spin class.

It was met with a few raised eyebrows, a harrumph, two poker faces and a quizzical look somewhat akin to what might be an animated response to someone trying to sell revolutionary round concepts to flat-land thinkers.
Run that past me again????

If you allow your desire to carry you away from pain and into a safer, more secure and pleasant status, real or otherwise, you have denied the existence of the importance of your part in history. It is not about escape. You can run and hide but time will find you.

You are avoiding the one thing that will impact your future, and immediate growth. Your very path, this amazing journey, requires you to come to grips with this reality.

If we suffer (somewhat) in class, climbing hills, adding cadence and extending the duration of each to evoke the adaptation of strength, then surely this is for a reason. I will offer that the BIG reason has nothing to do with enhanced cycling fitness and everything to do with indoor cycling being proxy for the epic trip that you call your life (and I call mine.)

This is a critical element that we must address. It is that important. It really matters.

Without moving from your current zone of comfort, you cannot grow. Our demographic (40+) faces the double-whammy of having to manage the crippling aging process as we introduce additional challenge in the form of work. And then more work. Hard work. High volume, high voltage, high energy work.

Otherwise one will ascend to the pointy part of this trip's course and suddenly head back down the hill with astonishingly speed. I speak from experience. I have been atop that hill, argued my case at the road-block and have had to adjust to the ignominy of the reverse descent. It is no fun. But it is real.

And one had better accept this fact sooner as compared to later. Because there is no later without this now. This. Now. Here.

That is how we gracefully traverse from the focus of this pedal rotation to the glory of the completed course. A hundred miles, one at a time. Ninety minutes, one at a time. A year's worth of success, one at a time. And a lifetime of awareness, one heart-beat at a time. That is why we say that the goal is the road. Not the destination.

Please dear friends stay present. Enjoy every ride, no matter the challenge, no matter the uncomfortable sensations that arise from effort. You will be rewarded.

You don't want to dis eternity.

Trust me on this one.