Zen Lessons on the Motorcycle

Yesterday was one of those days when I wished there was more of me to go around.  It was Reformation Sunday, so there was plenty of church stuff I could be doing.  It was also my brother-in-law's birthday, so he and my spouse had motorcycle plans.

It has been one of those times where I felt that I should prioritize my spouse's yearnings, so I chose to go with him, even though it was windier than I'd have liked.  We were going to meet them at the edge of the Everglades and ride with an even bigger group to a restaurant that was friendly to big groups of bikers.

Well, we missed the exit.  We were almost to Homestead before we realized it.  We turned around and raced back to the meeting place, but of course, we had just missed the group.  We headed out towards the restaurant.

On a normal day, we could have made it.  But we sat at the light at Highway 27 watching cyclists go by and realized we were not going to be allowed to go north any time soon. 

And so, we headed south.  We rode places we've never been before.  I wasn't sure where we'd end up, but I knew that worse case scenario, we'd get to the end of the continent and turn around to go home.

We wound our way through industrial parts of Miami, with cyclists whizzing by beside us on one side and a river/canal on the other.  We ended up near the Miami airport and made our way down LeJeune Road, the only road where I was sure where we would end up.  South we continued to Coral Gables.

We then went back to Interstate 95, a roadway which has scared me on the motorcycle, so we avoided it in the past.  But it was fine, despite the poor quality of the asphalt in many places.  It was good to be getting home by a direct route.

It was not the adventure that we thought we would have, but it was great nonetheless.  There's a lesson here.

This morning, as I'm seeing Facebook pictures from the various Reformation services that I missed, I feel a bit of sadness at missing those opportunities.  Of course, if I had gone to those services, I'd have felt sad about missing the motorcycle ride.

I didn't go to the afternoon multi-county Reformation service either, but I did get my online teaching tasks done, as well as lunches made for the week and laundry done and other tasks to get ready for the week.  Here, too, I feel sad about what I missed, but glad that I'm not feeling frazzled this morning, trying to get those tasks done this morning.

I am not a clergy person.  I can't go to multiple services on Sunday and have down time on Monday to accomplish the tasks that didn't get done on Sunday while I was at church.  I'm not exactly happy about that, but it's the life I have right now.

I'm trying to be better at realizing that I can't be everywhere at once.  I'm trying to make choices that will leave me with the energy to do both what I want to do and what must be done.  I'm trying to prioritize, but it's so hard. I'm trying to be present for the adventure that is at hand, not the one I planned to have.