If you've been following my blog, you know that my dear friend, Maya Stein, is on a journey of lifetime, called Type Rider. She's traveling by bicycle from Amherst to Milwaukee, trailing a vintage blue typewriter behind her. Every day she visits a new town and invites folks to type away to a simple prompt. Those of us who can't be there in person are joining in by responding to the prompts from afar via the Type Rider Google group. Every day I am inspired by the amazing responses people write. I want to share one of the pieces that posted earlier this week because it speaks to something so key to me/Simply Celebrate. Jean Reinhold really opened my heart with this one … and I'm grateful for her permission to reprint it.
June 6: Prompt: It Wasn't Until …
It wasn't until I was on the corner of Fairmount and Lee that I remembered that today was the transit of Venus. I was riding into the sun, heading west, and I recalled that I was "seeing" something that would not happen again for 105 years. By the time I made it to Fairmount and Coventry, where some people had set up a viewing station, I thought I ought to pull over and watch the small dot of Venus moving across the sun, but, honestly, I needed to make it to the market for some bananas so I rode on.
Then the really important thing hit me, the most important thing of all. I would never ride down Fairmount on this day again. This day, with its North Carolina sky. This day, with its San Diego perfect seventy. This day, with its fresh scooter euphoria.
Nor will I ever laugh with Claudia and Adrian the way we did at lunch. I will never cheer for Sirr as I did during mediation try-outs. I will never fall in love with the new Jason Mraz song, Frank D. Fixer, for the first time as I did just a few hours ago. I will never link it, as I did, to Tia, someone I wish I could love all the way. I bet I will never have the exact conversation with Sheridan on the porch again. One in which my four-year-old friend tells me that "if we are ever not with each other for a while, you will hug me because you love me so much." I will never sit as I am sitting now, typing these words of this day.
Venus in transit? I get it. The allure of a once in a lifetime planetary event. But, really, isn't every day a once in a lifetime planetary event? Aren't we just lucky to be here, moment by moment by moment?
Photo and text copyright Jean Reinhold. Jean is the author of Skipping Stones blog. She has also been a regular contributor to the daily writings prompted by Maya Stein at Type Rider. This piece/photo are reprinted from her June 6 blog entry.
You can follow the Type Rider journey of Maya Stein via her blog. You can participate in the daily prompts Maya is posting, by joining the Type Rider group.