LEARNING HOW TO RIDE

 

LEARNING HOW TO RIDE

As Christmas gift giving approaches it seems appropriate to me t

hat many children will find a bicycle underneath their Christmas tree.

Remember learning how to ride a bike…can you still remember how it feels?

The day your parents plopped you on the seat…thank God for training wheels.

Then came the day that changed for world…a day we must all face as we grow…

The day we came to realize…the training wheels must go.

Remember your mom and dad running behind you…hearing their encouragement…their groans…remember looking back…seeing them in the distance and smiling…

you were riding on your own!

You felt alive…excited…you thought this bike riding is a piece of cake…

until you realized they taught you how to ride a bike…

but never taught you how to brake.

You saw the world differently atop your bike…you learned a lot of lessons then…

like every time you fall…to get back up and ride again.

You learned to be confident in yourself…you gained a sense of pride….

perhaps you thought how much your life had changed the moment you learned to ride.

Or, perhaps, you didn’t think about how life changes…you were too busy being you…but as you grow a little older there will come a time…you do.

You’ll think how a baby changes daily…how in no time they’re learning how to crawl…

as easily as the cooling breezes of summer turn into the chilly winds of fall.

We blink and that baby is riding a bike…then a teenager on the go…

as quickly as those falling leaves of autumn turn into the falling winter snows.

That teenager becomes an adult with all the wonders and responsibilities that brings…as quickly as the winter cold turns into the warmth and colors of spring.

Yes, change surround us…it’s inevitable…and though we may not understand why…without it that caterpillars growing inside us would never become a butterfly.

Since life will not slow down for us…no matter how many time we’ve tried…

I think learning how to ride a bike helps prepare us for the ride.

“How can riding a bike prepare us for all the changes in life.” You scoff.   

Because it helps us find the courage, the determination and the confidence…

once our training wheels come off.

So if you give a bicycle this Christmas…remember it will help your child stay balanced…and how to learn from their mistakes…

and before they start riding on their own…

you might want to tell about the brakes….