Regan was riding his bike yesterday and ate it hard. He was doing great and rolling along pretty quickly when a combo speed wobble/high side slammed him into the ground.
He gave me a bit of a stunned look and sat there for a minute. There was a good knee scrape and some tears, but then he got up and started riding again. He was back to full speed within minutes.
It reminded me of when I was a kid. I remember trying to jump something. I don’t remember what, but knowing me and my friends, it was a way bigger jump than our skill level warranted.
It went wrong and I crashed so hard I though I might die. As I struggled up from the ground I decided I was done for the day. I slowly climbed on my bike and wobbled toward home. About a minute later it didn’t seem to hurt as bad, so I turned around and went back to my friends … and the jump. I was sore for a couple of days, but at least I didn’t miss out on any fun.
As I was watching Regan climb back on his bike it made me think about life as an adult.
It’s been a really screwed up couple of months with all sorts of wrenches being thrown into my life. A few of them had me in the same stunned state as Regan post crash, and to be honest, I wondered for a minute or two if I would recover and get back on track.
But then, having no choice but to figure it out, I realized that none of it was that bad after all.
Much like crashing teaches you how to be a better rider, some of the solutions to my recent wrenches, turned out to be better than if nothing had changed.
Sure, it’s stressful, but sometimes you need to get a bloody knee to get where you need to be. No-one became a good jumper without some hard crashes along the way.
It never ceases to amaze me how much I learn from my kid’s natural approach to things. Maybe we should all stop thinking so much and just hit the jump. It’ll probably work out.
I’m James Durand and I’m Goin’ Ridin’…
