wherever you go.... please take me with you

i'm not sure about the meaning of that description at this time, but it's a song i have on the headphones right now.

i was camping on the long weekend up north of here. spending even just a few days in the outdoors can be so refreshing, even if the evenings are quite cool. i felt it so cleansing, even healing. it's interesting how food seems to taste better, appetites are greater, and you can get tired doing nothing much at all.

i think we get so caught up in our world. we're sealed off from the outdoors. winters are cold, summers are hot, so we go from our sealed house to a sealed car to a sealed office, and we hardly spend any time outside.

the internet, of course, isn't helping. some of us sit on our asses all day, and our main sources of communication are email and chat. then we come back in the evenings for games or whatever. are we isolating ourselves?

that said... i'm going outside for a walk...

dreams and candles

while i sit at my computer for the better part of most days, i long to be outside. i want to be outside in the sun or the rain. i want to lie on the grass and look up at the clouds drifting by. i want to walk among the trees. anywhere, but here...

yet here i am, again, sitting, typing.

i dreamed i was pulled over by a cop, for speeding. i knew the cop, but he didn't want me to tell the other cops that i knew him. they made me get out my car, and they proceeded to tell me everything that was wrong with the car. then they tried to fix the problems, but the ended up making things worse. they acknowledged none of this, and sent me on my way.

somewhere a candle burns with passion
though yielding no flame, its heat is unquestionable
a little secret
a little smile
a little reminder
if only it could talkit could tell me
of a wonderful journey.

my sunday ride on the road

this past sunday morning i went for a bike ride by myself. i hopped on my road bike and hit the country roads for a couple of hours. as luck would have it, i rode straight into the wind at first. this was a struggle, but a good workout. along the way, i rode alongside a guy who was heading in my direction. we chatted for a bit - he told me had qualified for the world duathlon championships in australia this fall, for his age group, which he noted to be 60-65. he didn't look that old. we rode together for about 10 minutes, then i left him in a parking lot where he took a break. he passed me later, zipping by at an alarming speed. i followed for a while, then we headed off in different directions. i saw him once more later, on my way home.

speaking of on my way home, i had the wind at my back, and it was effortless to ride so much faster. a few miles from home, the sky darkened. i wanted to do 50km, so i had to add a short loop, but in doing so, i ended up riding into the rain. and to my surprise, the SNOW. i made one turn and ended up almost getting knocked off my bike it was so windy. my face was getting pelted with ice pellets as i rode straight into the wind. fortunately, this only lasted a minute or two. i made it home, cold, tired and hungry.

one other note, i passed by this church - a mennonite church. there were at least 100 cars in the parking lot and they were all black. except for one red, and one white car (the rebels!). i've never seen so many black cars congregated.

good decisions

every day we make decisions, some good, some bad. this is how we learn, i guess. with each decision comes consequence. and things that happen to us force us to into making other decisions.

sometimes the right decision is the hardest to make. sometimes we'll find ourselves suffering through a decision we made, and it may not seem like we made the right choice. but if it's the right decision, everything will turn out - it just might take some time.

so i leave with the thought that sometimes, when things are left entirely up to me, i can still make the right decision. it feels good to know i've done the right thing.

i hope you feel the same way :)