Like Riding a Bike …
Bike riding may seem uninteresting to many, but it amazes me and is encapsulated in this sentence (from today’s NYTimes) about removing training wheels — “Suddenly, your body and brain were forced to rapidly synthesize the disparate skills of balancing, pedaling, and steering.” To me, that rapid synthesis (that soon becomes ordinary) deserves a pause because it is actually astonishingly complex. All of this at age 5 (or so). In its way, its miraculous and marvelous (worthy of marvel).
About 14 years ago I was sitting in the doctor’s office for a check up following neurosurgery and the chief nurse asked how I was doing. I replied by commenting that bike riding was a little more complicated when she stopped me for clarification about what I’d been doing. I replied that I had been riding a bike, which led her to basically stop that portion of the check up – if I could ride a bike, I was fine. From that appt on, whenever I am on a bike I made sure to raise my hands for a few yards in triumph and gratefulness.
Every day, there are small miracles that we take for granted. Let’s stop and point them out.