Be
CAUTIOUS or be BRAVE?
Yesterday
I was invited to a birthday party for my niece in West Salem, WI. I
could have jumped in the truck, hit the freeway, set my cruise
control on 73 MPH, and arrived in around two hours. Or, since the
weather looked good, I could jump on my Spyder and take the scenic
route up to the party.
The Spyder. I call her Charlotte. Get it? From Charlotte's Web?
As soon
as I started to entertain the idea of riding the Spyder, I started to
cook up reasons not to ride it. What if I broke down – or worse –
got in an accident? It's such a long ride. My longest ride to date
has been around 1.5 hours. This would be closer to 2.5 hours ONE
WAY. What if I get too tired? Is it a good idea to ride that far
all by myself? I had just about talked myself into just taking the
truck when the question popped into my mind: Are you going to be
cautious or are you going to be brave? Or, to borrow a line from the original Aladdin movie: Am I Sultan or am I Sultan?
Then it
occurred to me that the truck could break down or be involved in an
accident just the same as the Spyder. If it happens on the Spyder, I would just have to do the
same things I would do if it happened with the truck. As for getting
tired, well, I didn't have anything else to do on Saturday. I
literally had the whole day free to do whatever I wanted to do. What
am I saving my energy for anyway? I thought, “To hell with it!
I'm riding the Spyder!”
You know
what? I was REALLY tired Saturday night. My hands, arms, and shoulders
were pretty sore. Riding motorcycle is very interactive after all! I
am also ridiculously, unrelentingly happy. I had a great ride
through some of the prettiest country in southwest WI. It was both
peaceful and exciting. I did get a little tired on the way back, so
I stopped at an antique store and found a really cool Pepsi sign. I
asked the owner about the sign. He told me it wasn't very old,
probably from the 1970's. So I said, “That's perfect! I'm also
from that 1970's. That means I'm not very old either!” :) I
also stopped at a farmer's market and picked up some fresh local
strawberries. I did get caught in three little rain showers on the
way home, but that just added to the challenge and gave me reasons to
stop and wait out the showers and rest.
This sign and I aren't very old. Yay!
It would
have been really easy to stay inside my comfort zone and drive the
truck. It would have been nearly effortless and would have saved
some time. But, saved time for what, exactly? Riding the Spyder
that far by myself was stretching the limits of my confidence. The
thought made me rather nervous. I have found that most often true
happiness lies somewhere just outside the outer limits of my comfort
zone. The joy is in the doing and overcoming. Sometimes folks think
that if they could just be comfortable, content, and stress free,
they would be happy. I find that I need a bit of stress, a bit of a
challenge to be happy. It is nice to return to comfort and relax,
but you cannot really appreciate that unless you stretch and become
uncomfortable once in awhile. When faced with the choice to be
cautious or be brave, I like to try and be brave every now and then.
Turns out my happy place is just at the outer limits of my comfort
zone in a place I've never visited before.
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