Goal: 2,200 miles by 9.24.10
Miles ridden to date: 801
Miles left to goal: 1,399
Days left: 26

Beware of dehydration and onset of heat stroke. Yesterday was in the 90's and I apparently did not drink enough water. To put it nicely it was unpleasant...today I feel like I was hit by a truck. Did I learn my lesson? yes...

Capacity of a Heart

More valuable than treasures in a storehouse are treasures of the body, and the treasures of the heart are the most valuable of all. Strive to accumulate the treasures of the heart! (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1 p. 1170)

Your heart is bigger than this fist-sized muscle beating in your chest next to your lungs. It’s larger than you can fathom. We like to think that we can only love so much or give so much or be so much and that’s all we have and then we can’t love any more or give any more or be any more. But that isn’t the case either. There is no limitation on what we can give, or how much we can love, or what we can imagine. The only limitations are those we make for ourselves. And yes its true that sometimes we know not what we do. And yes it is true that it can be immensely and even debilitating difficult to love more or give more than we’re ready to do.

This also means there is no limit to our capacity for compassion, except it must be honed and nurtured.

And you don’t have to do more than you’re ready for. Please just realize that whatever you think is not ever going to be possible for you; financial freedom, love, joy, health, happiness, focus, a career, children, whatever it may be- that this is not the case either. Our limitations exist so only that we may break through them. (Or let them go)

We break through them with our faith. The Lotus Sutra is alternately likened to a sword to cut through obstacles, a great ship to cross the sea of suffering, and the roar of the lion... We access this path through our daimoku and we stay on this path by manifesting, each uniquely, our mentor and disciple relationship.... (posted by request, excerpt from August study presentation that I wrote Aug 26th, 2010)

Goal: 2,200 miles by 9.24.10
Miles ridden to date: 758
Miles left to goal: 1,442
Days left: 29

Bicycle quotes on life

Goal: 2,200 miles by 9.24.10
Miles ridden to date: 721
Miles left to goal: 1,479
Days left: 31

Consider a man riding a bicycle. Whoever he is, we can say three things about him. We know he got on the bicycle and started to move. We know that at some point he will stop and get off. Most important of all, we know that if at any point between the beginning and the end of his journey he stops moving and does not get off the bicycle he will fall off it. That is a metaphor for the journey through life of any living thing, and I think of any society of living things. ~William Golding

Life is like riding a bicycle - in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving. ~Albert Einstein

Goal: 2,200 miles by 9.24.10
Miles ridden to date: 710
Miles left to goal: 1,490
Days left: 33

700 at last!

Goal: 2,200 miles by 9.24.10
Miles ridden to date: 700
Miles left to goal: 1,500
Days left: 36

Charlie is back in action!

Goal: 2,200 miles by 9.24.10
Miles ridden to date: 694
Miles left to goal: 1,506
Days left: 37 (somewhere in there i forgot to do the math correctly, i guess its good i'm not an engineer...)

Its going to take a lot of determination to catch up for being 3 weeks behind... here we go!

Hidden

If you place a fern
under a stone
the next day it will be
nearly invisible
as if the stone has
swallowed it.

If you tuck the name of a loved one
under your tongue too long
without speaking it
it becomes blood
sigh
the little sucked-in breath of air
hiding everywhere
beneath your words.

No one sees
the fuel that feeds you.

-Naomi Shihab Nye