riding

I’ve owned my motorcycle for two weeks now, racked up over 2000km riding to places I’ve never seen before and made more new friends than I have in the last 10 years.

“So why now? is a question I have always been asked.

If not now, then when?

I’m a lot calmer now, not the hothead that I used to be.

I quit drinking.

It is the last one which allowed me to feel emotions for the first time in my adult life.

Pair this with the visceral feelings you get by being on a bike when surrounded by traffic or alone on the open road… well you get to feel alive.

I’ve changed a lot. Many of these changes do factor into the “why now”, as I am more focused on the journey in between spaces than getting somewhere as fast as possible.

I came across this article and this portion of it resonated with me:

https://www.thedrive.com/travel/4377/a-well-loved-motorcycle-is-good-for-the-soul

My father says, “It’s not the years, it’s the miles.” Usually around his birthday or mine, his blue eyes bright with mischief and a half smirk on his lips. It’s as true for men as it is machines—it's not the lapping of time that gets you but the distance the days drag you. But I’m learning there’s value in being worn. In being used. That it’s better to be beaten with the fullness of your purpose than to suffer the slow decay of preservation.

that it’s better to be beaten with the fullness of your purpose than to suffer the slow decay of preservation...

I didn’t know what my purpose was before.

I do now.

So maybe that’s “why now?" too.

#chasingbutterflies