The Wompus

"Like most upheavals, damage is only permanent when we let it be so powerful we can't get out of bed before peaking underneath to convince ourselves there is no boogeyman.

You will meet versions of your nightmares with your loved ones, your competitors and yourself. It's what we call living, laughing and loving.

Just be Jen and keep your hands steady on your bars, two fingers lightly touching your brakes and be ready to dismount before your wheel touches the barrier...people who love you will be on the sides cheering. "

I have had a few months sabbatical from my blog. I don't like drivel. I'm not a fan of social talk. I want to know the point of where I'm going. I have had to learn to be patient and wait for some clarity rather than make it happen. I had nothing to write because I had nothing to say.

The quote above is something I wrote in reply to a young friend's frustration with loved ones. She had the luxury of being life flighted off the side of a road in Otis after a crash on her bike. I say luxury because it could have been a last ride in an ambulance with a sheet over her face.

Her recovery has been a few months and now she wants to race 'cross this fall. I guess some people want her safe and racing a bike doesn't fall under that title. I understand.

But, what I really understand, is the fight. The littered battleground of disregarded choices, open bottles of guaranteed elixirs for happiness, amongst scattered plastic containers of different sizes and shapes filled with the substance of the battle that is factual and real.

We fight because we can. I look under the bed at the boogeyman and give him the finger. I know he is there. Sometimes the glow of his flourescency tumbles out and fills my bedroom with color. But I have learned to wait him out. He'll leave and bother someone else.

So my words to Jen are about living and understanding with living, comes upheaval. It's better than having that sheet over your face.