The Bike Ride

So if there is one thing I know about the voices in our heads, it is that if you promise them something as a reward for helping you out or getting out of your way, you must DO what you said you were going to do. Otherwise they will punish you with a vengeance and get louder and louder until you can’t even hear yourself think. So whether it is a reward for giving your first great speech, or in my case, writing a first blog, you better keep your word.

Yesterday my voices asked for a bike ride. So at 5:30PM I dutifully loaded up my red Specialized Roubaix bike into my car, drove to Logboom Park to meet my Native Planet biking club riders and we all took off to ride the hills of Kirkland. For those of you who are not bikers, there are, what are known in biking circles as the seven grueling hills of Kirkland. As we took off, I smiled to myself, My voices asked for lost of fun steep hills and I was just about to deliver a full 25 miles of them..

First we went up Normandy Hill, then Winery Hill (otherwise known as “Whining Hill” as it is so steep that everyone riding whines going up,) , then Jaunita Hill and last, Holmes Point Hill. As I was huffing and puffing up the first hill, I spoke to my voices and asked, (Huff! Puff!) “So, (Huff! Puff!)  is this what you,(Huff! Puff!) wanted?” “Yeah! This is great!” they yelled. “More!!”  I smiled. It was nice to hear them screaming with joy and not terror.

As I finished eventually grinding my way up Holmes Point, and was sailing back downhill at 32 MPH, I was reminded of a client of mine who gave her very first successful speech after 32 years of terror induced laryngitis. The look on her face was exuberance mixed with enormous relief and triumph.  As I flew downhill, I was feeling the same way after having overcome my own terror of writing my own first blog post and getting up all these fun challenging hills on my bike. “Yahoo!” I yelled out loud. “Yippeee! This is FUN” my voices screamed in gleeful response.

When we reached the flat section of road after the hill, my voices spontaneously offered their gratitude. “Thanks for keeping your word to us. We feel much better and calmer now.” So I took a leap of faith and asked them a question “Iím so glad you had fun. Since I kept my word to you today, will you assist me in writing blog post number two tomorrow?” There was a long silence. Then they threw down the gauntlet, clever negotiators that they always are, and said, “Sure thing, if youíll give us more hills.” Yikes I thought.

I can see that I’m going to be getting in very good shape very soon.