My main goal when I get on my bike?
Get across the bridge.
Get to the South Shore.
Get to the countryside.
Get to smell the manure.
Get to share the road with a tractor.
Get to the open fields.
Get to be alone.
But for most of the time, I am not alone.
I have some friends.
Birds.
I was never really a ‘bird guy.’
I mean, if I heard a Cardinal singing, I would always look to find it.
I would stop if I saw a Crane standing gracefully in a marsh.
But overall, birds were birds.
Trees were trees.
I don’t know why or when.
But I think I know how.
It started to change a few years ago.
It started to change with these rides.
I have my bike to thank.
I have these rides to thank.
I am alone, and there is nothing else to look at but nature.
Not only look at but listen to.
I will stop in the middle of nowhere.
That one square metre around me is ALIVE.
Insects jump from leaf to leaf.
A frog sitting on a rock.
Bees on the flowers.
I think about all the square metres I have ridden through.
How much ALIVE there was.
There is.
I have a favourite though.
It may sound kind of odd.
But if you rode with me, I would easily prove to you, it is not.
It is one of my favourite birds.
The ‘Yellow Warbler.’
It is so yellow that you immediately see it.
Like it escaped from a cage in someone’s living room.
It is fast.
It appears out of nowhere.
It disappears into nowhere.
It does this thing.
It does this thing that I love.
It will come out of a bush along the side of a road and join me while I ride.
Not for long.
Just a few ups and downs and then it is gone.
It is like when a Dolphin swims ahead of a boat and dives in and out of the water.
Whenever I see one, I promised myself that I will always say, ‘Hey Buddy.’
I said ‘Hey Buddy’ three times on my ride this afternoon.
One did a few ups and downs, left, and came back.
I honestly think it is the same one I see on every ride.
The same spot.
I like to think he or she is waiting for me.
‘The Yellow Warbler is My Cycling Dolphin’
Insert Dolphin emoji here.
‘There is another way to ride.’