Biking as a Spiritual Discipline

A few weeks ago a friend of mine pedaled from St. Paul to Judson for morning worship. Her act made me think, “I gotta get out of my normal biking route and start biking farther from home.”  The other day I pedaled over to the U for a continuing ed class.  And yesterday I had the wonderful idea: I would pedal from Judson Church to St. Paul’s Monastery for my monthly spiritual direction meeting

This seemed like a great idea, key word here is seemed.  Most of my ideas seem like great ideas at first.  I come up with a, seemingly, great idea, jump right in only to discover I am in over my head and quit.  But yesterday…I was on my bike and a friend had inspired me and I had an appointment with my spiritual director and it was a beautiful day…so I stuck with it.

The ride over started fine, 1st avenue to the Greenway, to the river parkway, then over the Franklin Avenue bridge and onto the U of MN’s transit way.  So far so good.  As I merged onto Como Ave I thought, I might as well cut some time off by hopping on the #3, ride down to the southeast edge of Como Lake, then pedal away.  But I got on the 3B, the 3B slides south onto Energy Park Drive and onto Front Street. By the time I realized this we were a couple miles down the road; I exited the bus and started pedaling again.

No big deal, after a few minutes I was back on track.  I just had to find out how to get on the Gateway Trail.  As I pedaled on Arlington Ave, eventually, I found the Gateway State Trail.  Although it would have been helpful to have known about this.  St. Paul is a beautiful city but it confuses the Presbyterian out of me.  If not for my superior sense of direction I might still be traversing the streets of the capitol city.  I found the Gateway trail again but then ended up on the Bruce Vento trail which hooked me with Larpenteur Avenue. On Larpenteur Ave I saw the Metro Transit signs and when I looked behind me I saw the #64 lumbering.  I stopped at the next stop and hopped on the bus.  I thought would take me to the monastery, busing error #2.

Once I corrected my error and started pedaling, again, on Larpenteur Ave I passed Hill-Murray school.  I was sweaty, starving, and had a sore rear when I saw the words from the Rule of St. Benedict. This sign set my heart in motion for spiritual direction.

And the women Benedictine community did welcome me as Christ: cold water, freshly baked cookies, prayer, hospitality, and spiritual direction.  Oh how I love the Benedictines!

I arrived for spiritual direction late, 30 minutes late.  But I can’t think of a more worthwhile session.  For one I was deeply in tune with my body.  Two, I had been silent for 2.5 hours.

Despite my spiritual high I still had to pedal back home.  The trip back started smooth, Larpenteur Ave to Furness Parkway to Maryland Ave to Phalen Blvd then things got hairy. Due to road construction I lost my Phalen Blvd connection and ended up on Pennslyvania Ave with a concrete barrier six inches on my right and cars six inches on my left (did I mention this was during rush hour?).  Somehow I made it back to Como Ave and found the Green Line where I happily hopped on with my bike and rode it to Prospect Park.

Around five o’clock as I crossed the Mississippi I dont think I’ve ever felt more thankful for Minneapolis than at that moment.

All told I was on my bike for 5 hours.  All told I rode

But you know what I did it!  And next time I’ll be a little better prepared.  But a soul/body can’t grow unless it is stretched.  And sometimes you need a friend just being who they are to inspire you to stretch yourself.

Furthermore: how does one say “my ass really hurts” in bicycle?

Lastly, I would rather ride in winter with a snowplow behind me in Minneapolis than ride in construction season in St. Paul…