32
Posted: March 26, 2012 Filed under: cancer, cycling, haiku, poetry | Tags: cancer, cycling, Fermilabs, Naperville Bicycle Club, recovery, thyroid cancer 10 CommentsEach day I am stronger, I feel it in my heart.
But when we go out to ride with the group, it is all I can do to hold a wheel ( stay close enough to the person ahead of you to draft and gain efficiency from reduced wind resistance ). It is almost 3 months after the thyroid surgery, and one month after the radiation, it just seems I should be stronger. But either way, the dog still fights on.
Today we headed out toward Fermi Labs, that dichotomy of a park where on top you see fisherman, buffalo in the field and pass bogs where frogs croak a symphony that starts softly as we approach, rises to an ear shattering crescendo, and then fades gently out of range as we cruise on. Underneath this wood and field hides a giant cyclotron, where physicists try to know the hand of God. We merely fight the wind which shifts half way to reward us with a headwind out and back.
Thirty two miles at the end, and again I am so spent, that my story falls into a few fragmented memories.
The bogs where the invisible frogs croak like a thousand birds singing. Heather giving me a pull when I was floundering
Following closely
Auburn hair shining in the wind
The joy of movement
And the glass of ice water at the end.
haunting
thanks…. amazing how another can “pull” you along by just riding ahead of you.
for sure!
Thank you Jele, if I may call you that, I always look forward to your comments, and your posts.
Yes, such a lovely passage. you are stringer each day! No shoulds….just be and grow back to the new you. Be well…
Opps, stronger not stringer 😉
It is interesting you say ‘a glass of ice water’
Over here, after a hard ride generally we drink room-temperature water – we believe the sudden temperature extremes might not be great for the body…I picked this up during my first trip to Indonesia (about 200 years ago)
Good point, I think everyone is the US is ice crazy, as almost all beverages are served that way, unless they are coffee or tea.
This is beautifully written–and I hope you keep going from strength to strength.
Thanks — sometimes it is hard to admit weakness, but perhaps one of the benefits of being older is we don’t need so much to pretend to be who we are not.