adventures in biking

yesterday was drizzly and overcast
and at 3pm i had before me the task
of biking home.

i love rainy days,
they stir up abundance inside of me
and leave me in this lovely place
somewhere between peaceful and energized.

so i set out on my bike,
rainy day songs playing in my ears,
raindrops making my eyelids flutter.
i had the bicycle path to myself
on this most fortunate of days
so i decided to practice bicycling with no hands.

things went surprisingly well and before long
i was able to steer around curves in the path
and even relax my arms
and put them by my sides
instead of holding them outstretched
to keep my balance.

the rain felt good running down my hair,
dripping off my cheeks
and i sang like no one was listening because
most of the time, no one was.
except those raindrops
but they're good secret keepers.

and then today.

the sun was shining but the air was cool
and i was once again biking home around the lake.

i had worn my sweatshirt during my morning ride
but no longer needed it so i had tied it
around my handlebars.
but it became loose early in my ride and somehow,
whilst tightening my sweatshirt's hold on my bike,
i lost control and went flying down a small
hill filled with bushes that separates
the bike path from the walking path.

there was nothing to be done,
i was going too fast and could not stop.
through the bushes i flew
and i finally crashed to the ground
on the asphalt walking path.

i just laid on the ground for a few seconds,
feeling a little shocked and a little embarrassed.
my head was downhill from my legs,
legs which were also intertwined
in both my bike and the bushes.
i tried to get up but the laws of physics had other plans
and things hurt all over so i gave up,
put my head back down, and started to laugh.
it was the only thing to be done, really.
thankfully two mom ladies came running over
to see if i was okay and one of them
picked my bike up for me which enabled me
to pick myself up off the ground.
i assured them i was fine,
thanked them for their kindness
and got back on my bike,
my pride mostly intact.

even though i was bleeding, in a lot of pain,
and had dirt and gravel embedded in multiple places on my body,
i couldn't help but laugh all the way home.
i'm sure i had made quite scene
and there had been plenty of people there
to see the whole thing go down.
i think falling is really funny
and i hope they all got a good laugh
at my expense. i really mean that.
i hope they had compassion, too,
but i really hope they laughed.

my battle wounds are as follows:
a somewhat deep scratch on the back of my left leg,
a chunk taken out of my left knee (still some dirt in there),
a swollen scrape on my left hip (definitely a small piece of gravel in there),
two painful, lumpy bruises near my left elbow,
broken blood vessels in both palms,
lots of dirt and gravel deeply embedded into my right palm,
it stinking hurts to bend my left arm and my neck is a little sore.

i decided i'm going to get a helmet this week
since if i'd landed on my head instead of my side
things could have been bad.
plus i promised my mom when i started biking
that i'd get a helmet, and promises are for keeping.

-nicole