Tuesday 5/6/14
~to Boca Raton
~to Plantation
~to Miami
52 days ago I left my home in Philadelphia on a bicycle. I had done this many times before, but this particular time was different. This time, with my belongings packed into two pannier bags, I'd be gone for nearly two months. And I'd be riding all the way to Miami, Florida.
"I'm not riding to Miami," I'd repeat to myself, especially on the morning of departure. "I'm not riding to Miami."
Though a technique to keep myself calm and present, it was true. I was never biking to Miami. It was never about getting to Miami.
The reason the saying "It's the journey, not the destination" is so accurate is because we never set out to just arrive at the end, or to just arrive at some future point.
Life is like a dance, or a song. We never set out to reach the end of a song; otherwise, the goal would be to see who could play the fastest, and our most talented musicians would be the ones who brought us to the end of a song as quickly as possible.
Like our recoveries...we don't just arrive at having 10 years clean. We start with one. There is only ever that one. And we keep coming back.
Imagine if I was leaving to bike from Philadelphia to Miami on March 16th. What a feat that would be! How overwhelming that would be!
But I was never biking to Miami. I was biking to Wilmington. I was biking to Forest Hill. I was biking to Baltimore. (et cetera)
But today, after 52 days and 1600 miles of successive approximations, I am biking to Miami. From Boca Raton; a much shorter distance than from Philadelphia.
I am stopping first in Plantation for a class with youth at FLITE Transition Center alongside volunteers from Yoga Gangsters, an incredible non-profit organization based in Miami who regularly provides yoga programming to youth-in-crisis and at-risk populations.
I will be in Miami the rest of the week doing different classes, and I will return to Philadelphia on May 11th. via train.
But, in the meantime, today.... I am biking to Miami.
~to Boca Raton
~to Plantation
~to Miami
52 days ago I left my home in Philadelphia on a bicycle. I had done this many times before, but this particular time was different. This time, with my belongings packed into two pannier bags, I'd be gone for nearly two months. And I'd be riding all the way to Miami, Florida.
"I'm not riding to Miami," I'd repeat to myself, especially on the morning of departure. "I'm not riding to Miami."
Though a technique to keep myself calm and present, it was true. I was never biking to Miami. It was never about getting to Miami.
The reason the saying "It's the journey, not the destination" is so accurate is because we never set out to just arrive at the end, or to just arrive at some future point.
Life is like a dance, or a song. We never set out to reach the end of a song; otherwise, the goal would be to see who could play the fastest, and our most talented musicians would be the ones who brought us to the end of a song as quickly as possible.
Like our recoveries...we don't just arrive at having 10 years clean. We start with one. There is only ever that one. And we keep coming back.
Imagine if I was leaving to bike from Philadelphia to Miami on March 16th. What a feat that would be! How overwhelming that would be!
But I was never biking to Miami. I was biking to Wilmington. I was biking to Forest Hill. I was biking to Baltimore. (et cetera)
But today, after 52 days and 1600 miles of successive approximations, I am biking to Miami. From Boca Raton; a much shorter distance than from Philadelphia.
I am stopping first in Plantation for a class with youth at FLITE Transition Center alongside volunteers from Yoga Gangsters, an incredible non-profit organization based in Miami who regularly provides yoga programming to youth-in-crisis and at-risk populations.
I will be in Miami the rest of the week doing different classes, and I will return to Philadelphia on May 11th. via train.
But, in the meantime, today.... I am biking to Miami.
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