Cycling

Sometimes things just don't go as planned...in fact more often than not. Jeff organized and participated in Cycle for Life, which was a campaign to raise 100 blood donations for the Canadian Blood Services. For each donor he committed to cycle 5 km...making it a 500km 2-day trip that he would bike with a team to London and home. Last week was the ride after a year of planning and campaigning. The weather was good, the route was well-planned and the riders were exhausted but did amazing the first day. After 13 hours on the bike on day 1 the bikers went to bed early and were up at 6 to head out the next morning. Only an hour into their ride the second day, a biker's tires got caught in a railway track and the group had a crash. Thankfully there was no life-threatening injuries but Jeff and my brother-in-law, both needed to be taken to the hospital for x-rays. As I walked into the Emerg to see Jeff, I could see the devastation on his face. His planning and training and hard work would not be seen to fruition. He knew he had caused damage to himself, which would mean more work in my life. And was in a lot of physical pain. There are moments in life that just don't feel good. That are scary and painful and miserable to walk through. But that's the thing. We need to keep walking to get through them. Jeff could have stayed in that place of misery, it would have been justified. It's been a difficult year. He was doing something good. However, by the time he was released from hospital he sent me on my way to continue to cheer and encourage the other riders on the team and care for them as they finished the race. He stood at the finish line with his sling on cheering them in and celebrating their joint success, despite his personal set back. He took his eyes off himself to look at the bigger picture. I think that when we choose joy, we do have to take our eyes off ourselves. Joy doesn't come from within...so we need to focus on the source. We also need to focus on the good in circumstances despite our sorrows. When I saw my husband's cracked helmet, I chose to focus on thankfulness for his life...not the 6 weeks of extra labour...okay so I occasionally focus on that too. I'm still learning.