Brain Dump: Being Busy, Aching Backs and Riding Motorcycles

fuzzygalore royal enfield motorcycle

Brain dump warning. Rambling mess in 3, 2…

If I consciously go over the last 2 months of my non-working time, I have been busy filling my free time doing all sorts of things. But as I sit here writing this, coffee steaming in the dark hours of the morning, my what have you done for me lately brain says that I never go anywhere and never do anything. You may have heard me say that before. It seems to be a recurring theme. What I’ve come to realize is that version of my brain is an asshole.

Sure, I can talk a good game about appreciating life and savoring small moments. In truth… I think that I actually have the capacity to do that but I’m also always hungry for more experiences. Maybe I need to gobble them up so I can have something to savor when adventure time is lean? Kind of like fattening up for the winter.

Now I don’t know if it has been a subconscious push to “get things done,” if I’ve just been grabbing opportunities as they arise or what’s going on with me – but as 2015 has marched on I have scratched lots of things off of my To Do List. More things in the past 6 months than I probably did in several other years combined. Granted they may have been small and achieved on piggybacking visits but they were important to me and I did them.

Lately I’ve been seeing quite a few articles float through my social streams about how people are spending more money on experiences than they are on consumer goods – and that it’s a good thing. On the flip side of that, I’ve also been reading that we should stop the glorification of busy. So somewhere there is a balance, I guess? Spend your money on experiences. BUT NOT TOO MANY!

Right. Maybe what I really need to do is just stop reading the internet and spend more time riding my motorcycle.

It is still mostly dark out. The sun is just staring to peek over the trees. Silver drops of moisture are hanging on the windows. And me? I’ve been thinking about where to next? I keep coming back to the idea of hopping on the bike, swinging through Burlington, Vermont and then over to Laconia, New Hampshire to visit the Whispering Giants that are in those towns. Just around the way from the New Hampshire giant is the American Police Motorcycle Museum in Meredith. I’d also like to give that a look.

Unfortunately, this week I’ve been dealing with my aching back. It’s been about two years since I’ve had any trouble with it so this has been an unwelcome reunion. Can’t stand up, can’t sit down, can’t walk around without it being aggravated. Being out and about by the weekend isn’t looking promising. I’ve taken off my tinfoil hat and am trying to will it to stop being a pain. I just want to get on with moving around spryly. After all – I’ve got things to do!

 

 

Fuzzygalore

Rachael is the whimsical writer behind the 20+ year old Girlie Motorcycle Blog. As a freelance blogger, she is on a mission to inspire laughter, self-examination, curiosity, and human connection. Girlie Motorcycle Blog can be found on several Best Motorcycle Blog lists.

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4 Responses

  1. Zoe says:

    Experiences not things, absolutely, every time (she says knowing her house needs a serious clear out of stuff that she really shouldn’t have bought in the first place). Motorcycling, just for the sake of riding and also as a means to see lots of places, is a fab way to spend your time, don’t feel you should apologise to anyone (including yourself) for doing that.

    As for the glorification of busy, there does indeed seem to be this thing where people (probably including myself) are having experience after experience after experience, all back to back. There is just one problem I can see with this, that we potentially end up cramming so much in our non-working diaries that we don’t have any time to actually enjoy the experiences we’re ticking off our lists, or give ourselves any time to process one before we go onto the next.

    Maybe we should slow down a little. But when we’re having fun that is tough, and seems so boring!

    Hope your back, and your brain, gives you a break very soon x

  2. Shybiker says:

    1. Sorry ’bout your back. Hope it feels better soon.

    2. You know Zoe?! She’s the best. I love Zoe. Wonder how she found you. 🙂

    3. Your description of your brain startles me in how similar it describes my brain and my current thinking. Despite packing my Summer with energetic fun (Woodstock m/c ride; Mermaid photoshoot; Vancouver meetup), I’m eagerly trying to stuff more food onto my plate (Niagra Falls trip). I know I shouldn’t ’cause of other competing demands for my energy but I can’t resist the impulse. Yes, we should have balance in our lives but… I thing we go through periods… spurts… when we pursue adventure super-enthusiastically. Then we have periods of sloth. It seems unbalanced in the short-term but probably balances out over the long-term. I suspect something powerful hidden deep in our psyches is driving us now. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts (in a future post) on what you believe is motivating you to be so active.

  3. It is one of the thing I am learning that we need to find that balance of down time from the busy time to allow our body to rejuvenate before moving on. I can relate about injury preventing from doing something that you’re passionate about which causes our brain to crave what we’re not doing even more.

    Miles to go before I reach home…so I can rejuvenate.

  4. curvyroads says:

    I can relate; to the experience overload, the desire to do still more, and weirdly, the back pain! So strange, haven’t had it in a long time, but just yesterday ouch! Maybe it’s a phase of the moon or something…

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