A thread on how being open to pain can lead to some beautiful journeys.

About a year ago I got mugged.

He was maybe twenty, and he wanted my bicycle. He said he had a gun, and I didn’t see it, but I didn’t figure my hundred dollar Walmart huffy was worth killing or dying over

So I handed it over and watched him ride away. It was at a busy intersection in broad daylight near my home. I was stunned, angry, humiliated.

More than that, I had rediscovered the joy of biking and realized I didn’t have it in the budget to get a new one. It sounds silly,

But I was also heartbroken.

Someone had told me about a community bike shop where you could volunteer, build up volunteer credit, and use that to get a new bike. So I went.

I didn’t know anything about bikes or how to work on them.

My first task was to strip an old

Broken down bike. From there, they taught me how to make repairs. Basic ones at first, then more advanced. I started showing up and helping others fix their bikes.

Eventually, I built up enough credit to get my own bike. A beautiful Japanese road bike that I rode everywhere.

But I kept showing up, too. I kept learning, helping customers, fixing bikes, working the front desk, etc.

I became a ‘committed volunteer’ and they hung my photo up on the wall of the shop.

Had I not been mugged, I never would have set foot in there. I never would have volunteered if I didn’t need to.

And, when I no longer needed to, I found that I wanted to. Working with my hands and helping people with no expectation of return for myself is a gift and a joy that

I never would have gotten otherwise.

Moral of the story is that pain is unavoidable. But that by being open to where that pain takes us is the great defiance of the human heart and spirit.

And i don’t know what caused that young man to do what he did, but I still think of him

Though, instead of anger these days, I just hope that he found whatever it was that he was looking for when he took my bike.

End.

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