Life Lessons and A Bike

First, let me begin by explaining why I chose the blog title Getting There. This is meant to be my journal. And I am in a place in my life where I feel that wherever I ought to be, I haven't quite reached. Therefore I spend my time "getting there". This is not to say that I am unhappy. I am just not completely happy. I am getting there. Now you begin to see the significance of the title. With that out of the way I can now share the life lesson my daughter just taught me. And all by riding her bike.

I have two daughters. My oldest, being six, is just learning to ride her two wheeler. Santa brought her one for Christmas but mommy seems to lack the initiative to take the damnable thing out and teach her. So I have decided to be more hands on about it and took her and my youngest, three years old, to ride around the condos. It all went much like this: I hold on, I let go, she falls. I hold on, I let go, she falls. I hold on... you get it. And of course this is how it should be. Towards the end of our practicing she was showing visible signs of improvement. I found myself cheering as she went a few feet farther than previously. Then she fell. It seemed like she hit her ankle on her bike and that pretty much ended any desire she had to be on the bike. Not that the desire was huge to begin with. I set her on her bike and walked her home. When we got in I told her to get into comfy pajamas, grab an ice pack, and lets pop in a movie. I was trying to distract her from any discomfort and make what was a negative experience a little easier to swallow. Hoping that she won't hate me the next time I ask her to practice riding the machine of doom that is her bicycle. While she got settled I squatted down, looked her in the eye, and gave her some kind of life lesson speech which probably did more for me than her. It went something along the lines of this..."Honey, you know, life is kinda like riding your bike. It can be hard. Even hurt sometimes. But if you keep at it,  it will eventually get better. Maybe not as quickly as you want it to but it will get better. And along the way I'm here to give you a little extra padding when you need it."...The padding was a reference to when I was pushing her home I offered we buy her some pads and gloves so it would at least cushion her fall. She was happy about that.

I realize that she probably heard about the first three words out of my mouth before I lost her. That's okay. I heard me. And I realize that right now, in my life, it gets hard sometimes. And some things are not going so easily. I'm frustrated and admit to even wanting to have a good cry about it. But I keep going along. Bumps, bruises, hurt ankles and all. All I can do is hope that I'll eventually get over this learning curve and ride off into the sunset. Just like I want my baby to do. Well hell, now I feel like a bike ride.