It has been no secret to those who know me that I have been in a personal rebellion against cycling. This is not out of laziness, nor dislike of the sport, but rather out of pure lack of interest. I recently learned how to stop doing what I think I “should” be doing, and instead treat each day as an opportunity to do what I want to do and love to do. Unfortunately for my beautiful pink bike, biking was momentarily on my dreaded “should” list and so it got dropped entirely so that I could have a break. Thankfully though, this weekend was the revival I needed to re-discover the beauty that comes in the sweet sound of moving spokes.
Much of my time in Charlotte, North Carolina this weekend has been surrounded by bikes. From the elite and professional twin athletes that I am staying with who have six bikes in their house, to the Charlotte Crit Championships that we watched in Uptown Charlotte Saturday night (see video below), to the Sunday afternoon 45 mile group cycle ride I ride, biking has been on my mind and in my face.
My realization? The sound of bike spokes is sweetness to my ears. Whether I am watching a tight peloton of one hundred professional cyclists, or I am in my own with four friends, the sound of spokes spitting out air as they wheel across the pavement is beautiful. It is a sound that I needed to step back from in order to miss, and once you miss something, you appreciate it.
You may not be a cyclist, and you may have no desire to ever get on a bike yourself, but surely you will experience the same inner battle between what you “should” love and what you really love. Sometimes these inner conflicts last a few hours, sometimes a few days, and sometimes a few years, but, at the end of the day, life is short, so don’t regret how you spend your time. If you take a step back from something that you truly love, and you really do love it, then the beauty of what you love will call you back, singing to you in the wind like spokes spinning sweetness.