Chasing Spring

Texas continues to surprise and impress me. Today's ride was nothing short of idyllic, from the rolling pastures with grazing sheep and cows, to the endless blue sky and warming sun. Spring has arrived in eastern Texas, and today she wore her Sunday best. This, my friends, is bluebonnet country. For once the seemingly mortal enemies The Right Place and The Right Time have made concessions and agreed to meet with us and each other on the roads between Bernham and New Waverly. Recently it has rained, and now something fresh and living is pushing or crawling out of every crack and crevice. Sweeping fields of wildflowers, not just blue (although that's the overwhelming hue) but splashed with red and yellow and orange, are spread out to each side of my empty country road. Butterflies race in front of and by me with chaotic energy; they feel familiar, like old friends. Immersed in this pastoral landscape I feel like a kid racing with ease down a dirt road between fields of summer corn. My pedalstrokes are effortless. I have lost myself in all around me, each sense heightened more than the one before. The last thing on my mind is biking, except when my trailing thoughts lead me to recognize how lucky I am to be here, in this moment. I am thankful, then immediately slip back out of touch and into the world of innocence that has permitted me to pass through and soak up. Tonight I crawl into bed dripping with the golden dew of spring.
Thanks to my lifelong friend Adam Norton for sponsoring today, you picked a good one old buddy.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry