2Wheeltips

...so there I was. Airborne. Flying upside-down and looking back at the bike I was sitting on only a fraction of a second earlier. The bike had made a dead stop.

When a motorcycle meets a cement guardrail at 60mph, who wins?
As it turns out, the cement guardrail wins and the bike stops. Hard.
And what happens to the guy riding the bike?
He finds himself wondering "what just happened?".
Oh yeah. A car ran a red light almost sideswiping me in the process. That's why I decided to test the resilience of the cement guardrail.

That's interesting. I'm still flying through the air. The almost-collision seems so distant; as if it happened hours ago. I wonder what I'm going to land on. Oh good. Its grass.

I never noticed how gently the grass sways in light wind. It’s almost imperceptible. The drops of rain that accumulated last night are all but gone now. It means it will be a soft landing. That's funny. I'm still airborne. What do I do now?

I must make sure I relax. I've seen so many drunkards fall down a flight of stairs and get up as if nothing had happened. They were relaxed.

Hmm...it seems I'll be landing on my back. If I spread the impact over my entire body, especially legs and feet, my arms and my butt, I just might survive this thing after all. Wait a minute. What's with this clarity of mind all of a sudden?

It feels good. This focus and single-mindedness on one objective; the survival. It should feel this good all the time. Is this what they mean when they say "be in the moment"?

Both my mind and body are entirely present and focused on nothing but now. I feel invincible. I must remember this feeling and keep it with me. Nothing outside of here and now matters. This feels right. This feels like purpose. This feels like some meaning of life shit. But that can’t be right, can it? My life's purpose, my life's meaning can't be to merely survive accidents; so what else could this mean?

At least now I understand why Einstein said that time is relative. I am sure that anyone watching me fly off the motorcycle is seeing only a few seconds of my life pass before their eyes; but to me it seems like an eternity. Where was I going anyways? And how come I didn't see the car in time to stop?

Oh yeah...my baby is back. She's been away and we haven't seen each other in weeks. I was just thinking how great will it be to see her, give her a kiss and feel her smile brighten up a room; and then the car came out of nowhere. But I should have seen it coming; how come I didn't? Where was I at the time of near-collision?

I was in the world that didn't exist yet. I was in the world that would have existed in 10 minutes or so... if I didn't hit the guardrail, that is. I guess I wasn't in the moment; I was in the moment that was supposed to happen 10 minutes from now.  And how did that work out for me?

Well, I'm still flying through the air at least.

What do I know for sure? My life's purpose right now was to survive this accident. Survive the accident? What kind of purpose is that? That can't be my purpose 10 minutes from now, or 10 days, or 10 years, or whatever...

Hmm...I think I get it. The purpose will change; the meaning of life will change from moment to moment and the way to realize my purpose is to realize the purpose of the moment. That is the doorway to a meaningful life.

The purpose of this moment is to survive the landing. The purpose of moments that are yet to come is to have my body and mind entirely present and focused on each and every new moment. When I hug my woman, when I'm with my parents, when I'm in a meeting, when I'm learning something new, when I'm riding my bike...imagine a lifetime of moments that you were fully present for. It's a good way to avoid an accident at least.

So a lifetime will be filled with more then one purpose? I guess that makes sense. Looking back on mine, I've certainly had different priorities which, in turn, affected the goals I was pursuing and things I was doing.
It took a while but I think I'm getting it now. I should probably create a "to be" list in addition to the "to do" list. And the first item on my "to be" list is to be in the moment, fully present, focused, open and unaffected by factors outside of now. Sounds damn near impossible but I'll consider this my personal challenge. It looks like I'll be landing soon...

Thump!!! Hmm...that wasn’t so bad. I guess it’s possible that my spinal cord got damaged and the nervous system failed to transmit the pain signal to the brain. Could be that the adrenaline rush that slowed everything down has numbed the pain. Could be...but I feel ok. I think.

Let’s move the arm. Check. The other arm. Check. Feet. Check and check. Careful now, turn the head sideways...nothing but green grass. Try the other way...why are those people screaming? I think they might be concerned with my well being. Little do they know that my being was never more well, never more present, never more in the moment.

If "to be or not to be" is the questions, then the answer is easy. Be. Be here and now and make every moment extraordinary.