Hello Wriders!
The weather did not do us any favors today. The crazy thing was, we had sunshine and one cloud kept following us and dumping on us at its discretion. While the rain felt cool and refreshing, I could have done without the water infused fun. Neither Ivy nor myself prepared for rain as the day was bright and sunny when we left the house. Oh well…
This morning I tuned back in to music. My reward came instant as well as somewhat prophetic. The song “Storms” by Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac “Tusk” album) hopped into my ears like a comfortable old friend’s hug. For over two decades this song resonates within me as a description of the end of my previous marriage. I am not led to live an internally quiet, level life. My passions burn far too bright to allow circumstance to tamp them down too much.
I’ve come to realize I enjoy the passions that roil within. I do not mean to say for a moment that passion suffered my reproach over the years. At times I wished I could live numb as many people appear to live. I cannot. Not for any sustained amount of time.
I now embrace my emotional ups and downs. I understand the life still remaining in my soul. I possess no desire to relinquish one ounce, one molecule, one atom, one measurement of passion. Too many times in my life, my dreams and ambitions took backseat to level-headed, calculated, analytical thought. I lived as a man of emotion trapped in a logical world.
Slowly this past year, the fact we do not live in a logical world made itself known to me. Yes, I understand logic pops up all around us. There exists an incredible symmetry in this world. Life follows semi-logical paths and many great inventions may be said to be “logical”.
As long as we live in an emotional world, though, passions and chaotic circumstances will indeed have play in our lives. I welcome this aspect of life. Before the word “passion” suffers the indignity of extremist interpretation, allow me to state that passion can swell on a breeze, a blade of grass, and as a good friend just reminded me, a flower blossom at one’s foot.
Passion does not always require the definition of volatility. Passion may also be quiet, slow-burning, and free. Free to exhilarate at things as simple as sails, seagulls, and sandwiches as in the next tune on my wride – Sails.
On my wrides lately, I’ve opted for no music, and often nothing but the wind in my ears and the rhythms of life around me. A number of times, I listened this past week to Eckhart Tolle expound on The Power of Now. I found both listening to life and listening to Tolle rewarding. Today, I rediscovered the beauty of familiar music that played with my emotions and enhanced my wride.
A third song on the wride struck me just write and sealed the deal that I would write this blog. (You do know I misspell right on purpose I hope…). At this time, my iPhone contains an inordinate amount of Elton John’s music. This comes from me owning most of his entire library of music. I set my phone to “shuffle” play and Elton often slips into my ears. Today was no exception. “Madman Across the Water” seeped into the playlist and I knew this post would have music intertwined.
I love when my spirit soars, especially while wriding my bike, listening to music, and enjoying the beauty of the world around me. We get told each day we should buy this and do that and pay bills and vote and a billion other commands on how we should live.
I feel the truth of how we should live gets buried in the clutter of modern-day life. For me, I will continue to wride my bike, listen to music or the incredible world around me, revel in the highs and lows of emotion, and search for peace in a passion-filled world. Crazy in a way if you think about it. Maybe one day I’ll be the madman across the water. If I am, I certainly hope I retain the good sense to enjoy my madness…
). I only suffered through about five minutes in a light wrainfall, but later on my wride, I looked up at intense clouds staring me in the face (hey, I would have spelled it “phace except that would break my consistency with the “wr…” thing”…). 
