I spy joy on two wheels

photo by Dave Lafayette

I’ve been avoiding trips to the skate park with my husband and son lately.  Mostly because watching my child “catch air” scares the pants off me.  I find heaven in a comfortable chair with a good book, and this flying through the air on two wheels makes very little sense to me.  With practice, however, I’m finding that sense has very little to do with joy.

Kellen is a natural on two wheels.  He belongs to his bicycle as much as his bicycle belongs to him. Together they take each other places neither of them could venture without the other.  The speed, the pull that lifts them off the concrete, cutting the air in front of them in two and hanging in it before touching down after gravity gets the best of them. This dance they do together is pure bliss.

Slowly, slowly, I’m beginning to come around.  Looking at these photos (which were taken by Dave Lafayette) I can see how much Kellen loves to ride, how this puts him smack in the middle of that sweet and all too often rare spot called “the moment” where nothing else matters.  He’s not thinking about what he had for breakfast or trying to figure out when to fit his homework in.  He’s not even thinking.  He is just being.  Being there, in the moment, with his bicycle and the concrete and the air. Sense and logic and gravity be damned.  This is joy’s home.