Relax (and Simplify)

Sunday morning I was scheduled for a low intensity, 2.5-hour ride. When I went outside to let the puppies out and felt what had become an unfamiliar sensation of not freezing, I decided I must ride outside. That decision was only solidified when the sun came out in full force. I felt like someone who'd been released from a dungeon and in a way, I was.

I loaded up with gear and plugged in my MP3 player. (Yes I use it a lot when I ride, but trust me, the volume is low enough that I can hear everything around me.) In my mind, there was one clear choice of music for the day's ride. Ben Taddiken.

You see, I've been thinking about our buddy Ben recently because we've been trying to figure out if he's still in Key West or not. We've been unsuccessfully trying to get in touch with him for the past couple of weeks. Just the night before, I had a weird dream featuring my husband, Ben and an unidentified Monchichi-like animal floating on its back in the water around Key West. (I wonder whatever happened to my Monchichi ... )

At any rate, Ben leads a somewhat nomadic, pleasure-seeking life, usually playing guitar in a bar and consuming mass quantities of cocktails. Call it hedonistic or something worse, but it seems to suit him. One of his songs, Relax (and Simplify), has become his mantra and I was listening to that song and thinking about what it means. Sometimes the most simple things give the most pleasure. For me on Sunday it was the pure joy of seeing clear pavement for the first time in a while. Now I couldn't live the type of life he leads because I like "things" and security far too much, but there's something to be said for keeping some simplicity in our lives.

I'm continually being taught this lesson by someone or something, but I seem to keep having to rediscover it. Sometimes, especially when you've been hiding in the house, missing the sunshine and toiling away on the trainer, it feels so good to just get out there in the sunshine and ride. Not profound but true nevertheless.