Day 18: Beauty

Day 18 miles to/from work: 26.8
Total miles for S4S: 463.6

For the beauty of the earth,
For the glory of the skies;
For the love which from our birth,
Over and around us lies;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.
                         -Folliott S. Pierpoint

Yesterday it was kind of fun wrestling with the elements and taking them down to the mat. Today it was just as much fun being free of that obligation.  The weather this morning was a meteorological mongrel—unsure of its pedigree and nondescript in the extreme. Mid-50s temps, overcast with the occasional spitty rain, showing random signs of clearing, then reverting to sulky murk. It was an equally nondescript ride to work. Not uncomfortable, not fired with endorphins. Fine, just fine. Really. Fine. Or in Scott's Midwestern vernacular, "Not bad."

By the time I finished up my work for the day, I left a little later than I'd planned. With the shortening daylight compounded by overcast, dusk was setting in early. It had been raining, and Silver Beauty was completely wet except for the seat, which I've learned to cover with a plastic bag between rides. My knee hurt. I really was not in the mood to do this. Everything was wet. The asphalt was slick. The sky looked like leftovers that had been forgotten in Tupperware for three weeks. Yuk. Nothin' to do but get on and crank.

I don't remember exactly where the shift came—two or three miles into the ride, maybe. The rain had stopped, and even though it was still overcast, the air was so clear. A sweet, light breeze was carrying me along, and I felt like I was wrapped in sheets of freshly laundered air—transported in a moving oasis. Suddenly everything was so beautiful, and I was soaking in every changing leaf color, every molecule of oxygen, and every jolting walnut that created an obstacle course on the bike path. Watching a fishing boat on Lake Monona with the backdrop of Frank Lloyd Wright's Monona Terrace was the perfect coda as the distance wound down. That, and having the sense of you, my friends, along sharing the experience and intrinsic to the beauty.

Into the dark night of my yearning
Came Beauty with her burning grace.
She so humble, and I so blind,
I did not recognize God's face.

'Tis God I seek," I told her plainly,
"And I my friend, do bring God's love."
"But I am searching for God's glory."
"Alas, I only bring God's love."

Then Beauty knelt and dropped her veil,
And looked so deep into my eyes.
Her glance revealed God's mystery
Removing every false disguise.

Her tale was like a timeless flame
That set my heart within aglow.
With gratitude I bent my head
For there was nothing left to know.

When Beauty rose and turned to leave,
I called to her with soul-felt pain,
"Where shall I look if I should lose thee?"
And then, my friend, she said your name.

-Elizabeth Rechtschaffen