To be quite honest, winter is a rough season for me.  The long, dark, cold nights provide little motivation for me to get outside to do much of anything besides just walking to and from any building to my car…If I could curl up and hibernate the season out, I’d be perfectly happy.  I should probably move somewhere warmer, right?

However, the changing of the seasons from winter to spring is really something.  The glorious mornings when I wake to baby birds chirping from the trees as the sun peeks over the horizon to coax colorful flowers from the winter hardened earth  – makes “suffering” through those 3 months (or so) of winter all worth it.  There’s nothing better than the smell of the earth as it soaks up the spring rains, and seeing everything turn from gray and dull to vibrant green, yellow, red, and purple, almost overnight.

The return of warmer weather also rekindles the love affair Eric and I have with biking.  Sitting down today, thinking about what is to come, I thought of my lonely bicycles waiting to be ridden,  and wrote the “poem” below.  It took me back to Mr Berry’s Rhetoric class at York High, reminding me 1) how much I LOVED learning about writing in that class, and 2) how awesome words can be in sparking a daydream about the perfect day out for a ride.

Dear Bicycle,

As the days grow slowly warmer
and the sunshine begins to linger
I hear you whispering.

“Brush off the dust
that has settled on my pedals. 
Take me for a spin over the streets
freshly cleaned by spring’s soaking rains. 
Blaze the trails through the trees,
where sunshine sprinkles through
just budding leaves. 
Feel the cool breezes
rush over your winter paled skin
as you coast down the long hills in respite.”

I hear your whispers fast friend
and I answer
LET’S RIDE!

~Heather Meysenburg