Onramps

It's a quiet Sunday ride this morning.

Whereas the ride yesterday was surrounded by big city frenetics and buzz and noise, this morning the whole world seems silent and still.

The Bandit and I launch into a zig-zag route east and north and east again, just winding into and feeling the unending asphalt beneath us and breathing in the moist morning air. The onramp for the highway soon beckons and so we launch onto it...

The sun is cresting now, burning its way into the eastern morning sky against a backdrop of leftover scuttle and cloud from yesterday's rains. The ramp and sky combine into a huge glowing mass of orange for a second, and I think about what this onramp represents.

It's both the end of one path and the beginning of another. It offers a gentle but sure transition, an opportunity for a gradual shift in direction and perspective, and yet it also represents a certain kind of commitment. Just like any major life change, it will cost some amount of time and fuel and effort traveling in that new direction before being given the opportunity to pick another.

Sometimes life's onramps lead you in a direction you never intended. At times that onramp is exactly timed and placed to take you to untold surprises and adventures, positive changes and beyond.

And, sometimes, that onramp leads you exactly where you wanted and hoped to go - to a place you knew you were headed all along.

May you always learn from the ride and may your destinations be worth the effort...