It’s not often these days when I have enough spare time to go for a long bike ride because of work and family commitments, but I did have a spare day on Monday.
I started off heading towards a small coastal town, but ended up heading the opposite way initially because the roads are nicer and quieter. It was mostly rolling country side and the wind was non existent, so I was cruising at a good 28 kmhr (17 mph) on the level straights.
It was a good way to clear my head, and it reminded me of all the rides I did all over the countryside when I was a kid.
According to strava it was the longest ride I’ve ever done at 55km (34miles), but more importantly I wasn’t overly tired and my knees still felt good.
This is one of the hardest concepts to implement. It’s pretty close to “stop caring what other people think” which, unless you are a sociopath you’re not going to be able to achieve. However, other’s expectations is a broad enough category where we can whittle away at this which is the point of this post. […]
It’s almost summer here in NZ, so I rode my trusty Giant TCR2 to my favourite cafe today, but took a few detours to make it a bit longer. I was going pretty well until I dropped the chain off the front sprocket when I tried changing both the front and rear sprockets at the same time.
When I got to where I was going, I had a look at the front derailleur and decided it was dropping down too low, allowing the chain to come off. there’s an adjustment screw for setting how far the derailer moves, so I adjusted that by half a turn and all was good again!
The cafe served up breakfast on a proper plate today, because they are getting pissed off with ‘over the top’ regulations with this present lockdown.
I rode a different way home from my usual route to get a few hills in. I used to really attack those hills five years ago, but nowadays I don’t feel I have anything to prove, so I look after my knee’s and simply take it easy and keep the cadence constant. (It’s been months since I’ve had to go to a physiotherapist and I like it that way)
Strava says I did a mere 27km (16 miles) with an average speed of just over 19km/hr (11.8 mls/hr). it’s a bit slower than 25km/hr (15.6 mls/hr), which is what I used to achieve, but I’m happy with this as any ride is better than none.
Shared from MitchTeemly @ WordPress -Redeeming All Hallows Eve
Few people realize that the ancient church’s All Hallows Eve (“Hallow-e’en”) and All Saints Day were intentionally focused on both harvest and death, not in mindless emulation of pagan traditions, but for healthy, meaningful reasons.
Harvest festivals celebrate the ingathering of fruits and grains. And yet, at the same time, all around the town are the now-dead crops that produced them. Sad? No. Because this means they’ve accomplished their purpose, borne their fruits, and now rest in the earth. It’s a healthy perspective, one of death as fulfillment, not fear, as a time of rest and, although it cannot yet be seen, of a coming resurrection in the spring.
People too complete their work, die, and rest in the earth, All Hallows Eve reminds us. And yet they too will be resurrected one day. Therefore, on All Saints Day, those who’ve completed their purpose in life are honored (the Latin world’s two-part Day of the Dead stems from this idea, as well). And for those whose souls are less secure, the predecessor to trick-or-treating emerged:
On All Hallows Eve, the poor, especially children, would knock on doors, offering to pray for the souls of the family’s dead, and would be rewarded with sweet, fruit-filled little “soul cakes.” One spiritual-minded baker even put holes in her soul cakes, making them into circles representing eternity (and in the process inventing doughnuts!).
So let us refuse to surrender All Hallows Eve to that dark, unhealthy fear of death as something evil, something to be feared. Richard Rohr was right: one of the best ways to celebrate life is to acknowledge death as a grace, as a rest, a passage. For without death, there is no completion of this life’s purpose, no resurrection to the life to come. But for those whose souls are truly at rest, death is not an end… It’s a doorway.
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