3 Lessons I Learned from My Dad’s Old Bike
By: Sourav Das
Tags: Meditation, Self Reflection, Writers Block, Self Improvement

Accept it. Get Over it. Or Stay Stuck there.

“In 1966, Andy Dufresne escaped from Shawshank prison. All they found of him was a muddy set of prison clothes, a bar of soap, and an old rock hammer, damn near worn down to the nub. I remember thinking it would take a man six hundred years to tunnel through the wall with it. Old Andy did it in less than twenty.”

“Andy crawled to freedom through five hundred yards of shit smelling foulness I can’t even imagine, or maybe I just don’t want to. Five hundred yards… that’s the length of five football fields, just shy of half a mile.”

~ The Shawshank Redemption (1994), screenplay by Frank Darabont, Novella by Stephen King.

This 500 yards of shit keeps happening to our lives. The beliefs about ourselves become that mental prison. This prison stops you from your best performance.

You shut down. Give up. Or you stay optimistic and take your chance.

It takes each day, however. To be ready to give your best shot.

“Look

If you had

One shot

Or one opportunity

To seize everything you ever wanted

In one moment

Would you capture it

Or just let it slip?” ~ Slim Shady

24 hours is what each human has equal. Don’t let it slip.

This is a time of our civilization when billions are walking towards a future filled with uncertainty. If you are lucky enough to have the bare minimum, it’s time to rethink your approach towards life. Humanity in trouble means there are essential problems that need better solutions. Instead of hiding, it’s time to come out and act.

Coming back to the lessons, which are self-realizations or meditations made possible by the bike. These are the one those I was able to translate and apply.

I will get better at learning,

riding my bike

as the engine talks

It has never been to the hills. This was the bike dad rode and now he rides his humble 4 wheeler. It’s an old one, rugged and still smooth. Whether it’s off-road or on-road, it can handle those in plain terrains.

Now my man good ol’ Splender helps me in understanding a lot of things about life.

The light dims, If you go slow. You go slow when you are afraid of what’s going to happen. However, being afraid will rob you of the joy of seeing the bigger picture.

You are afraid> Light dims> You are still afraid.

1. You face the fear> See the bigger picture>You get over the fear.

Slippery road ahead!

The road to my home stays underwater whenever it rains continuously. The road becomes slippery, hard to keep the balance right.

What do we do? We resist.

Same as applying the brakes hard. When you are moving through a muddy slippery road, you don’t apply the brakes of your bike hard, you skid, you slow down, you keep going using the friction, instead of resisting it hard.

2. Sometimes, the decisions seem counter-intuitive. The consequences, situations, your instincts might tell you to do something, whereas you should go against them all. Just like not pulling the brakes hard.

3. Wash it off and start anew

Things got “too out of my head”. Facing anger issues after nearly a decade, I had no answers, what to do. Let’s not get into the root of the anger. I took my bike for a ride, the dirt in the tires, the mud felt like the inside of my head.

I washed it off. The mud from my bike. Gave him a good long shower. Things settled down inside my head as I cleaned my bike. Realizing it’s dirt, washed it off, started anew. Find the cause, deal with it.

This article is written to chase away the phantom writer’s block, I have been facing for a while now. On the plus side, being silent for a long time perhaps helps you to make sense even from the inanimate things. Wish my bike some love so that it keeps teaching me about life.

If you loved reading it, spare a few claps. Vroom Vroom Vroom!