Yes, that ride yesterday kicked my keyster (sp?). Since I'm a lady, I can't use that more colloquial word that rhymes with "grass." Besides, I think the alliteration works rather nicely, if I do say so myself!
Anyway...About the only ways yesterday's ride felt different from the same ride at other times in my life are that I felt more tired and that I was a bit sore in some of my new privates. I expected both, so today I took it easy: I washed some clothes and graded a bunch of papers. And, when I finally woke up this morning, I made myself two crepes filled with sour cherry compote I made from scratch shortly before my surgery. Compotes and preserves are delicious paradoxes: They are best made with fresh, in-season, locally-grown fruit, but they taste better after being stored for a while. Tomato sauce, which I also make, is that way, too.
The soreness is all but gone. At least around my tender parts, it is. My muscles are another story. Oh, here's something I didn't mention in yesterday's post: I was riding my fixed-gear bike. So, even though I wasn't going very quickly, my legs were moving as long as my wheels were rolling. And, paradoxically, going downhill is as much of a workout for your legs (if not your lungs) as climbing. You see, when you ride a "fixie", you almost have to backpedal at the same time you're pedalling forward. So you really use those muscles and tendons in your legs, especially in the back of your thighs! The hot bath helped, but I still feel a bit of stiffness.
It's kind of funny to talk about things being, or returning to, "normal" after you've had a major life-changing event. It's just as funny to think that you've had such a life-changing event if things are returning to what they were before the event--or, more precisely, if you're returning to something that you did regularly before the change.
Then again, the beginning of spring is as much about the beginning of new lives as it is about continuing--or, in some cases, resuming--the cycle of life. And, if my understanding of Zen, or my memory of my long-ago reading of the Tao Te Ching (sp?) serves me correctly, life is change. Really, I don't know what else it can be.
That means I'm definitely living. If my definition of life is self-serving, then so be it. I'm happy to be part of the cycle.
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