An Interview with Slash

I am sitting here with my 7-year-old son, code name: Slash.  He and I just had a conversation and that will be our blog post for the day.  A little bit of back story:  the day before yesterday, he and I were riding to the YMCA to pick up Duder (my 3 year-old daughter) and he had a wipe out on his bike.  He describes it this way:  "I was riding down a hill by Deer Park and right when this mail box came, I kind of swerved and I put on the front hand brakes and then I flew off my bike and my bike flew on my back.  My tooth almost came out and my chin got scraped, and I got a little bit on my knees and my 3 fingers."  A really kind man and his daughter saw what happened and stopped immediately to help.  They gave us a ride to the Y and from there my husband met us to take us home.  Slash notes that, "then we got to watch TV at home."

(My next blog post will be titled "Challenges", of which this was definitely one!)

An Interview with Slash:

Q: What do you like about riding your bike?

A: I like riding my bike because it's good exercise, and it's fun.

Q: What was it like when you wrecked on your bike the other day?

A: It was kind of good because I needed my tooth to be out and the lucky thing is that I got the right tooth. It hurt, but it still was worth it.

Q: Would you rather walk to the park or ride your bike to the park?

A: I would like to ride my bike to the park, since it's a faster way for transportation.

Q: Have you ever taken the bus anywhere?

A: Only when I went to a field trip at Jordan Hall. It was fun, you got to sit down and relax [on the bus].

Q: Where is someplace that you would like to ride your bike to?

A: To Bloomingfoods, since I've never riidden to Bloomingfoods before. I would get some stuff to eat like maybe sometimes when my dad takes me to the driving range, I get a root beer.

Medium to Slow...

Something that keeps running through my mind as the kids and I ride our bikes and walk around town is "medium to slow...".  This was one of the overarching themes of a retreat in which I participated last month.  The retreat was sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington (my church!) and was for women of any age, though the title was, "The Second Half of Life: Opening the Eight Gates of Wisdom".  The program was centered around the book of the same title, by Angeles Arrien.

 The retreat was a wonderful experience, just short of 24 hours, but filled with opportunities to meet and talk with interesting, engaged, caring, intelligent, lovely women.  I am grateful to have had the opportunity! 

Throughout the retreat, the facilitators encouraged us participants to slow down.  They challenged us to think about moving medium to slow in this extra-fast paced world.  It was and is a challenge for me.  I often find myself rushing for no reason at all.  I spent some time as a server in a restaurant and I often go into "server mode", trying to do 12 things at once all around the house. 

However, my WALBICUS efforts are causing me to move slower in many ways.  One thought that helps me is to think about "what do I have to do next that is so important to make me rush through this?"  A quick run to the library becomes a 1/2 day or more event, and proves to be extremely enjoyable when we ride our bikes instead of driving.  We prepare our bikes, check the tires, fill water bottles, load up a backpack with snacks and books to return, put on our helmets, and probably several other little tasks I can't think of at the moment - before we even leave the driveway.

I am very thankful that I have the ability to be with my kids each day and to even take the time to do these things with them.  I worked full time for many years, and now being able to take care of them each day is something I treasure.  I will continue to think (and hopefully act) "medium to slow" as much as possible as our summer continues.  It's been awesome so far!!!

 

My partners in WALBICUS. (They're #1.)

Why WALBICUS?!

I think we are off to a pretty decent start with our WALBICUS summer.  Today is Tuesday and we walked/strolled and biked with friends to a local park to play and meet a friend for a playdate.  But this past Sunday was something to celebrate:  we biked to and from church and then I biked back to church for a meeting!  Take that, carbon emissions!  In all seriousness, it does feel darn good to bike to places we may have formerly drove.

Which segues nicely into a list of reasons why we have decided to focus some energy on walking, biking, carpooling and taking the bus this summer.

-It feels good!  Walking and biking are great exercise and my kids and I need exercise!
-I recently agreed to co-coordinate WALBICUS efforts at my church, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington, IN, and I need to practice what I am preaching (coordinating)!
-We are believers - in global climate change (GCC).  As believers, we need to do what we can to contribute less to the scariness that is GCC.

I hope that through this effort and this blog, me and the kids will learn as we go.  We are having fun so far and tomorrow I will post some photos to prove it!  We are not experts, and we are not perfect.  (And I am not that great of a writer, but I hope to improve in that area, as well!)  But we are going to put our best feet, tires and wheels forward!

My family and I have decided to embark on an adventure:  a WALBICUS summer.  WALBICUS = WALk, BIke, Carpool, bUs.  We will be trying to do as much of those 4 things as possible to get us around town and to other destinations for the next 2 months.