Undone

Last Saturday night I stood in the deserted kitchen of a large church in Seattle.  With the help of my teammates (who now are closer to family than teammates), I slowly disassembled my bicycle.  I removed the pedals, handlebars, and seat, remounted the stem, and then placed everything in a large bike box ready to be shipped.  Each turn of the Allen wrench was a vivid reminder that the summer adventure had come to an end, but still I found myself laughing as I remembered the events of the summer with my friends.  It was one of those moments where you are supposed to be happy because it happened, not sad because it’s over…but sometimes that’s hard to do.  It’s a little crazy that in a matter of 40 minutes I could completely undo the vehicle that brought me up the entire Pacific Coast.

There are other parts of this summer that will not be undone quite so quickly.  My new tan lines, for example, will be with me for many weeks, and although it’s starting to fade, the grease from changing 15 flat tires in 5 weeks still stains my hands.  Soon (hopefully) my body will realize that I’m not biking 80+ miles a day and it will no longer require me to eat gobs of peanut butter on everything.  All these things will fade in time; I’ll probably even forget just how much my butt hurt.

But there are other things from this trip that will never be undone.  I hope I never forget the love of my teammates and I hope they all know that I would do anything for them.  The generosity of the church is also etched in my mind after this ride and I will not soon forget the beauty of God’s creation that I experienced through ocean views, mountaintop landscapes and my teammates.

I’m back in the “real world” and it’s full of distractions like schoolwork, mail, and bills.  Those things, however, cannot undo my summer, and for that I am extremely thankful!