NIR 2013 – St. John’s NL

As we headed west away from St. John’s NL and the kick off event of the National Inside Ride Tour, we found ourselves reconnecting with what it feels like to again walk that delicate balance between celebration and compassion.  Not everyone gets to be at the party but at the same time there’s honored guests attending.  There’s no script for this.

If you were to ask any kid that ever showed up in a new town and needed to make some friends fast, you’d know that a bike can be an invaluable tool.  That childlike spirit of “lets be friends and go ride bikes” permeates from everyone present at these indoor cycling get togethers . Some slowly at first.  Routinely it’s the actual kids that take the longest to get settled. Particularly ones that have experienced a lot of curve balls in their young lives. But they always get there.

Lucas & Adam have been through a lot together as brothers, no doubt.  Campers both, they’ve learned to know what fun looks like.  This is one of those gifts intrinsically in children, the gravitational pull toward fun once they trust it.  A big bike.  A microphone.  A roll of bubblewrap.  Going flat out the whole time until they drove away in the back of their Mom’s little red convertible like the rock stars they are, these boys were the heart of this event for sure.

If the bespectacled brothers were the heart, then Becky’s Bikers were the soul.  Our dedication for this ride was to Becky Courage.

What stops us in our tracks and at the same time propels us forward is the sharing of intensely personal and private stories that are hard to tell, sometimes hard to hear and always hard to imagine.  Erin spoke on behalf of her team of riders/dancers/models that were there to ride for Becky.  It takes a certain kind of special to be able to stare down that kind of hard as a teenage girl, step up to the mic and more intensely walk that line. Celebrating Becky’s life that they’d all lived together until last year but at the same time with a compassionate eye on her Mom.

This coming together of friends, this amalgamation of purpose, this is what gets things moving.  This event here on the rock will grow, mark my words.  It’s no coincidence that our first event was in a city perched on a ship harbour.  This town knows how to launch.