Simple Pleasures

This page does not necessarily have anything to do with bicycling but it does have all to do with awe and wonderment, something that happens frequently while biking. So, what is a Simple Pleasure?  The term could easily apply to many simple joys of life such as a walk in the woods. I have come to define it as a moment that happens unexpectedly to us but which also could easily have been over-looked.  After it is over, there is an intimate encounter with our environment that we have just experienced.

Please do send in your Simple Pleasure experiences.

SP#1: Butterfly Against the Wind
I was cleaning up in the garden last fall.  It was very windy and cold and this butterfly happened by.  It seemed so out of place in the cold and the wind and it was stuck in place, unable to make any headway in the wind. For probably a good three minutes it struggled with the wind, occasionally getting pushed back about ten feet but then finding its way back to the same spot where I first saw it.  Finally, it did move on, catching a current of air that allowed it to move quickly across wind to my left.
It was a special jewel of a moment, as spectacular in many ways as catching a glimpse of a meteor streaking across the sky.

SP#2: Hummingbird Encounter
I was at a meeting the other day and went home by way of the cafeteria terrace. When I was out there, in a deserted and relatively untended space, a hummingbird perched on a little metal frame to my right and just stayed there for quiet some time. It wasn't a special hummingbird, but it was a strong contrast to the surroundings, which were, as I say, deserted and on the untended side. Then, of course, it flew away.
                                                                             Submitted by Will Walker

SP#3: Dancing Light in Wood Pile.

I'm looking out of my kitchen window yesterday evening toward the wood pile when a very bright orange glow, fiery and dancing in place catches my eye. What is that? A fire? Doesn't make sense. Then, I realize that the setting sun is glistening of off one of the grommets on the tarp creating this incredibly bright light. The tarp flaps one more time in the wind and, just like a meteor streaking across the sky, the glow is gone.

SP#4: Riding with Geese

I was riding down a long stretch, cruising at 18-20mph, with a large flock of geese sitting in the road up ahead.  I kept waiting for them to take off but they continued to sit.  Finally, when I was about 50 feet away, I gave a vocal warning.  They took to the air, many of them flying low to the ground and in the same direction as I was traveling.  For about two seconds, there were two geese off to my side flying at the same pace I was.  It felt magical, as if I were no longer on my bike but up in the sky flying right alongside with them.  I pedaled harder, trying to keep up with them but they quickly outpaced me and delivered me back to earth.

SP#5: Butterfly on Shoulder

I was riding in our neighborhood and I had on my yellow jersey.  As I do frequently, I glanced in my helmet mirror to see if any cars were approaching.  I did a double-take when I saw a butterfly on my shoulder.  What are the odds, I thought.  First, that a butterfly would land on me while biking and, second, that it would land right there on my shoulder in perfect view when I looked in my mirror.  It was a quirky, funny and intimate moment all rolled into one.  I couldn’t stop to take a picture and the only way to see the butterfly was through my mirror.  Even if someone else did see the butterfly on my shoulder, I couldn’t share with them the very unique view I was experiencing.  I felt as if I was experiencing a confluence of events that could happen only once in a lifetime.  I kept looking in my mirror trying to decipher the deeper meaning that the butterfly was surely trying to whisper in my ear.  But, before I could make out its words, she was gone.