P + A = R

To recall my young friend's enthusiasm and passion for adventure when he heard of our latest bike tour, reminds me of a critical initial step requiried  if we ever want to realize a goal that we deem worthy of our concerted energy and effort.  

Abraham has grandeur visions of fathering a nation, Moses a passion for delivering people from slavery, and Queen Esther of helping defend her race from extermination "for such a time as this."  Of course, in our day we  might add to the entourage of passionate people, the spectres of  Martin Luther King, Jr. and his passion for equality between blacks and whites or of Mother Teresa who dedicated her life to caring for the least among the world's populations--including the lepers of Calcutta. Add your own notables to the list and you have a huge parade of people who were passionate about something.

Nevertheless, passion aflame in isolation soon cools.  Which leads to the second critical step:  action.  In each of the world's great achievers right on down to the rest of us who have achieved modest goals and adventures, the common denominator has been identical:  taking action. 

I remember sitting in my living room years ago on a cold, snowy January day and beginning to dream of my first long distance bike tour.  I planned and crunched mileage between towns and determined beginning and ending sites.  I began to gather the stuff that would help me to achieve a successful adventure.  But in the end, it was the weekly training runs that pushed my passion for biking adventure into reality.

So that's the mirror that I was looking into when I saw Elliott's big smile that said,"I'm all in."  He was all in too. 
Elliott pedaled several times each week, met for several longer runs with the team, shouldered extra jobs to raise his share of the funding and is ready to launch in a few days on an amazing, life-stretching adventure that began in a living room  when he dared to dream beyond his town and state; conquering a small part of the world on two wheels.

What are you passionate about?  What adventure do you dream about?  May you, too, find as many others have though the centures the power of passion ignited by action  

Passion + Action =  Results

OVERHEARING ADVENTURE

Not long ago several folks were sitting around the glass table in our living room.  We had just finished Compline--an ancient prayer that "completes the day" and we were quietly carrying on smaller conversations among ourselves.

So, Justin, are you ready to hit the ribboned roads of North Dakota this August?   Turns out, Justin was more readier than me.  He'd already pedaled up and down the trails around Spokane, logged numerous miles in training, and had upgraded from a hybrid mountainbike to a Greenspeed Trike.  What we weren't aware at first, was that another pair of ears were honed in nearby, a third party was listening on the edge of our conversation.  The conversation eventually drifted into future tours--like a 2020 tour of Cuba and a possible 2021 TranSiberian tour across Russia and China.

I'll go with you! 

We both turned toward the third party and 15 year old Elliott smiled back.  He wanted us to know that he was all in on bicycle-touring to exotic places.  Elliott's mom blushed a bit at her son's unbridled outburst and tried to affirm the boldness of her son's enthusiasm laced with a mild caution that only mom's can deliver with effectiveness.   

 Well, Elliott, that would take A LOT of work and training . . . and visas . . . and funding.  Such matronly wisdom would normally work to diffuse such unchecked enthusiasm, but Elliott took that as a speech for.  I'm sure he took in this cautionary advice yet his eyes dazed off somewhere just north of Mongolia.

My turn.  So Elliott, what about you go riding next week on the Centennial Trail with Justin and me?  That's about twenty miles . . . that might be a good first, small step to take.  Clearly, that would be a speech against.  OK, Mr. Hall, I'm in.  Let's do it . . . Cuba, can you believe it!  So it happened that a third team member, 15-year-old Elliott came on board.

More about unbridled enthusiasm in the next blog, but our third party Elliott reminded us once again, that having passion for something is a critical part of life and that passion is the first step toward accomplishing any noble and adventurous undertaking.

Elliott and Justin attaching
a rack to an E-bike.