Ruminations and Ramifications

Corn Chips and Real Life

Okay, let me warn you all. Corn chips are addictive. I can't believe I spent $4.50 on this bag of air-filled corn chips, and now I can't believe I want to spend another $4.50 for another bag. They're like cigarettes. I'm sure there's some unidentified addictive substance in them.

Second of all...

Let's talk about real life. And let me only say that it is slowly becoming not what I thought it would be. I think as children and teenagers we look at adults as some sort of deities who have mastered the ability to make the humdrum exciting. And we get to the event and it's merely humdrum. Nothing exciting about it.

Dreams get dashed pretty easily. Ideas we had are not always reality. In fact, a good percentage of them are not. And I have found myself consumed by knee-jerk reactions lately because life wasn't what I thought it was. God has started taking the reins, but I really can't say I liked where we were heading. There was desert out there. I wasn't sure there would be a drink of water for days. And yet I trusted. But that trust was interrupted by a few brief episodes of reactionary behaviour. I find that I still long for the instant gratification. I am still a card carrying member of the entitlement generation, one who wants her needs and desires and wishes filled RIGHT NOW. And who believes that the only way to true happiness and fulfillment is to make an immediate exodus out of those places in life that ARE mediocre.

But the key is not running from distraction to distraction. Instead it is maintaining a slow and steady pace. I've learned a lot of that through cycling. I had NO IDEA the learning experience I was buying into. I just knew I was dropping a grand on a bike I'd always wanted. See? Instant gratification episode right there. BUT, God stepped in and taught me a lesson with it. He taught me through my rides just how important downshifting is if you want to reach your goal. I can't expect to finish 30 miles on a high gear. There are miles and miles and miles of low-gear riding. I wasn't expecting that at all. I left the gear on my last bike to the highest possible (and probably damaged my knees in the process). I didn't learn about down-shifting until I bought this bike and had 27 of them to choose from. And now I never go 30 seconds without checking my cadence and adjusting my gear if necessary.

And that's what real life is. It's a low gear. It's a constant steady cadence. It will get you to the finish line.

Labels: cycling, marriage, this is me before, veganism

posted by Marcian @ 2:40 PM