My 3Rs Ride has taken shape and is now on the home calendar. It looks something
like this: Dorthy Street -> W.C. -> P.G. -> L.P. -> P. NV. ->
Dorothy Street. The middle section of the multiday ride needs to remain
obscure; I wouldn’t want to ruin the suspense for the posts to follow during or about the
ride itself and a couple of them should be accompanied by question marks as
there are details yet to be ironed out.
I
have decided to make efforts to address several issues that have been bugging
me. One is that I haven’t taken a multi-day ride of any type in nearly two
years. The others I will incorporate into the ride and activities therein.
The
3Rs? Remembrance. Renewal. Resurgence.
Remembrance: I’ve grown tired of whining about not
having taken the time to grieve for my parents. Handling their estate did not
allow for it, neither did planning their celebration of life. Then I took on
weighty responsibilities at church, and added tasks around my father-in-law’s
estate, and the adding this and that and blah blah blah… I’m bored with using
those things as an excuse for not taking a focused approach to my grief and I
will take care of that during this ride.
Don’t
get me wrong. I have grieved, and effectively so, while doing all those things
that encompass life. I’ve written about my grief and the grief of others for
their losses and that helps me process my grief. I have simply not taken stock of what I
am grieving, who and what I’ve lost, and what it means to have been their
little boy, their growing boy, the father of their grandchildren, and the
grandfather of their great-grands.
Renewal: I have let those things that I carped
about here topple me from my perch on happiness and joy. I get it here and
there, mostly from being with my kids and grandkids. Call me a pessimist, but I’m
not one to think I can skip through life sitting on Cloud 9 and joyous all day
long, but I need to find that kernel of joy that sparks from time to time. Some other things that can ignite my joy are getting a project done on or around the
house, hearing my wife laugh, hanging with teens I’m teaching, riding my motorcycle,
seeing a red-tailed hawk soaring (or nearly any other bird), being on or in the
water, and writing.
To
be sure, some of these things are re-awakening and I am hoping by working through
some stuff on this ride, they can become consistent. Especially the writing.
This prelude is me getting the match out to light the fire for writing.
Resurgence: Resurgence and renewal are closely
related to each other, but I love my friend Webster’s definition of resurgence and so it is the third R: a
rising again into life, activity, or prominence.
Here’s
to putting a few miles in the saddle and remembering, getting renewed, and
finding resurgence.
In
His grip and keeping the iron side up,
Jerry
‘Shakespeare’ White
