Biking Around Town

I was feeling old and slow. The trick for me was to get back on my old bike and pedal around Framingham for an hour each morning. I find I love to cruise through downtown and other active areas of my route. I like to see the people and think about their lives, and where they are going in the morning. Several people say hi to me, and anyone I greet always responds back. Those little niceties make me feel joyful. I enjoy biking past the Framingham train station just before the commuter rail pulls out at a little after 6:00am. It's a busy train with many types of working people shuffling, walking or running to get in on time. I see the same little woman doing her half walk/half run down Waverley Street every morning, always just a little too close to late for comfort. Our eyes meet now and I think we're both amused. I go by the same little diner every morning, and the same sad sack type guy is hunched on the first stool, while the cook & the waitress chat in the back. I slow as I pass a beautiful cemetery, and always look out into the darkness to make out my favorite white statue of Jesus in the Garden. It's a beautiful sculpture, and when I get close and look into the statue's face; I feel pain and an anointing that only comes over me in special places. I pass the same Basset Hound every morning, and I say, "Hi Floppy", she cocks her head and looks a little surprised. Maybe her name is Floppy and she can't figure out how I know it. Yesterday I was most of the way home, biking up a one way street by St Stephen's. An older woman was coming out the back door. She had a skirt long enough to meet her boots. She said to me, "It's a one way street, be careful!" I wonder if that was God talking?