with Gratitude

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It may be reckoned that the senior years, with new aches and pains monthly, are not a time of life for wellness gratitude. That reckoning is flawed. Wellness and health, even if diminished or diminishing, are most cherished and appreciated. 

It is not recalled when gratitude for wellness was first recognized. Parents that routinely encourage their children to experience the outdoors and nature foster a gratitude for wellness. Being outside, and in nature, promotes exertion of body and mind. Exertion has been good for me. I need to exert myself more often.

A favored form of exertion and a personal pathway towards gratitude is bicycle riding. Again, there are no specifically recalled exhortations to ride a bike. Being launched down Pleasant Street by my father and ending the ride with a controlled crash (?) is a memory. Stronger recollections include a paper route. Large bags filled with folded newspapers were precariously strapped to the handlebars. Biking balance was honed in the perfect paper toss and in fending off an agitated Collie or German Shepherd. Biking to school and to work naturally evolved.

A brother in law bikes for the joy of biking. He's biked across the country.  He's biked to see new sights. He doesn't bike to race or be first. Biking for him is not a hurried, but seemingly savored endeavor. At times, when I arise before the sun on a cold Spring morning for a bike ride with my daughter, it takes a bit to savor the experience. But the early morning rides with someone, or alone, are a particular joy. It is amazing what comes to mind and what is shared with gratitude for wellness and Creation. In the displayed photo Aaron and Bennett were recent biking companions along the Platte Trail.