Into Flow

In many ways, this blog is an unsatisfactory and incomplete attempt to describe to others the level of deep contentment I feel rolling along on two wheels.

Since early 2007 I’ve illustrated and described many of my outings.

I’ve attempted to convey the left, right, up, down, and the sounds, smell, and feel so that you might sense the deep contentment it gives me.

But there is a kind of rhythm and flow as the landscape scrolls by at 12 mph, and its description escapes me.

This is especially true on those longer Saturday morning ambles that include roadside stops for refreshment where I take a moment to ponder how to relate this story of this time and place.

Not so much for how it was, but for how it helps.

Yesterday’s loop up to Muenster, Texas is a perfect example.

The route is more dirt and gravel than pavement, and it is one of my favorites.

There is a delightful variety of farm, ranch, wide-open-ness, and forest.

There is emptiness and small town bustle.

And while you might understand that these are delightful to me, I know I am inadequate in my description of how it touches my soul.

So maybe there will be another attempt at some future date.

I’m reading a book titled, “Quiet”, by Susan Cain which seems to confirm my “introvertedness”. There are a few quotes that seem to apply…

“Flow is an optimal state in which you feel totally engaged in an activity – whether long-distance swimming or songwriting, sumo wrestling, or sex. In a state of flow, you’re neither bored nor anxious, and you don’t question your own adequacy.  Hours pass without your noticing.”

“The key to flow is to pursue an activity for its own sake, not for the rewards it brings.”

“Flow often occurs…in conditions in which people become independent of the social environment to the degree that they no longer respond exclusively in terms of its rewards and punishments. To achieve such autonomy, a person has to learn to provide rewards to herself.”

 

It is an interesting book, but it doesn’t really help me describe the depth of refreshment these rides yield. What it does do, I suppose, is help me better understand why they refresh.

It seems to have something to do with getting into flow.