Experience Life at a Slower Pace

December 22, 2008

In a car we see the country, but do not feel it, taste it, smell it, or hear it. We do not truly experience it. We are not intertwined in it. In a car, I feel like I am barreling through time and space in a contained, wheeled box.

Interstate highways are excellent for getting to a destination, but talk about boring! Sitting in that same static position while being perpetually inundated with mostly homogeneous sensory stimulation seems artificial.

The continual, constant frequencies of the engine and drive train and tires on the pavement are dulling. The monotony becomes mind numbing. There is neither variation nor vitality as there is in nature.

On a bicycle, we experience life at a slower pace. The quiet of no motors and no radios frees my mind to explore its own channels.

On a bicycle, we experience life at a slower pace. The quiet of no motors and no radios frees my mind to explore its own channels.

Traveling on a bicycle, wrapped in nature, definitely piques the senses. The smooth forward movement, along with the spontaneous sense of balance, amplifies the awareness of not being encased, which elicits an incredible sense of freedom and joy.

The continual productive movement of my body intensifies the senses, and the use of my own physical power is intrinsically rewarding.

Whether it is by stimulating endorphins, serotonin, tryptophan, alpha waves, or whatever mechanism, the physical exertion greatly contributes to my mental, emotional, and spiritual stimulation.

On a bicycle I am so much more aware of what is happening in nature. Once, as I was cycling through a forest, I heard an isolated rain shower pounding on the canopy of the leaves above me.

Through some of the clearings I could see the thick shower of raindrops, yet I never felt a drop on me.

If I had been in a car, I would not have known that it was raining directly above me. On the bicycle however, I was closely associated with nature and the weather.

By traveling at the slower pace of a bicycle, the scenes linger longer. The sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touch of life around us are embedded deeper within than they ever are while being in a car.

There is increased sensory input, more data points, more attributes to register and associate with each of the senses, and more to put into our memories.

As I view a farm with its pond, barns, and farmhouse, I have time to absorb the shapes, colors, and angles. I can absorb the details of the shutters, window treatments, varieties of doors, the architectural details, the shrubs, and the landscape around the house.

I can associate with sitting on one of the benches beside their pond, watching the tiny ripples at the water’s edge, admiring the skater bugs skimming on the water’s surface, smelling the mixture of the nearby daylilies and other colorful flowers, tasting the blade of grass in my mouth, and hearing the medley of whistles, chirps, calls, and songs of the thrashers, warblers, cardinals, and thrushes from the trees above and the bushes behind.

The cows inside the barn and the grain elevator feeding the silo are not just a blurry snapshot scene, but instead are a vital, active day, which I am a part of, as I breathe the earthy, dairy, and grain smells and hear the moos.

I can almost feel the sensations on the ducks’ feet skidding on the water as they land into the pond.

By traveling on a bicycle, I can stop at most any place to absorb the best inspiring sights.

By traveling on a bicycle, I can stop at most any place to absorb the best inspiring sights. I can stop anywhere I want on twisty, mountain roads to soak in the vistas.

Once I stopped along a guardrail by a lake to watch schools of glistening fish changing from one direction to another. A car would not have been permitted to stop there.

While there, other fish also entertained me as they leaped out of the water for their morsels.

By Georgia Glashauser