Advent: The season of preparation for the 12 Days Christmastide is a very interior one, with a focus on prayer, study, reflection, and retreat. My focus has been on these matters and on the blog I write for the parish. Getting away from usual patterns for retreat, review, and reaffirmation helps one embrace life anew.
Everything Else: It is a busy time of year for clergy, and while I have been living an Advent "tonality" much of the time, I have also been quite active in and around the parish. Many of the pastoral matters in which I have been engaged have required trips in a car. I find that these things often go in cycles, really. I am very much looking forward to more cycling time, though.
Sickness: After managing to avoid getting anything more than a light cold for some years, I came down with a walloping good one this year, taking about a month to get through. I found it difficult to cycle much...but there were some great exceptions.
Plans for the future...
In the coming weeks I hope to find time to write more about my exploration of alleys downtown as well as some of the pedestrian bridges in town. That would be relaxing. I have a number of articles in mind about various places in town of interest, as well as the topic of "Active Transportation" in general.
Finally...
I leave you with a photo taken one December day of the front wheel of my bike underway. I find the spinning of wheels quite meditative, with their combination of continuity (turning round and round) and change (covering new ground with each turn). I am also struck again and again by the fact that balance on a bike is not the result of carefully weighing everything and getting it in perfect equilibrium, but a dynamic process of constant change grouped around a central mass moving forward. This is a profoundly true fact for life on and off the bike saddle.
There's a blog post in that, too....
Thinking about such things is part of what makes cycling both a spiritual and a practical part of my life. It is part of the essence of "Upright Cycling."
Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year to all. May 2013 be a year of moving forward in the direction of Life in its greatest sense.
