“It’s not a question of better or worse. The point is, not to resist the flow. You go up when you’re supposed to go up and down when you’re supposed to go down. When you’re supposed to go up, find the highest tower and climb to the top. When you’re supposed to go down, find the deepest well and go down to the bottom. When there’s no flow, stay still. If you resist the flow, everything dries up. If everything dries up, the world is darkness.” – Haruki Murakami from The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
When I read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle a year or two ago, I thought of flow as something like a big sine wave with a low frequency. Gradual shifts that moved on a timescale similar to the seasons. Lately, the peaks and valleys change places weekly, so when I’m going up, I climb I high as I can and ride it as long as I can.
And usually that takes the form of actual bike rides. I got out on the road 4 days in row last week, despite the 90+ degree heat. I found a climb that’s steeper than 20% over the weekend. I got dropped on Monday and rolled back home exhausted to the point where you have to sit and stare at the ground through your knees for 3 minutes before you can contemplate taking your shoes off. It was great. The battery on my bike computer died and upon replacing it, I finally made the switch to metric units. Anything to feel more PRO.
Tuesday was my birthday, and a lot of small things made it worth it. I stopped for coffee and a muffin on the way to work and the streets slowly began to wake up. It reminded me of Brisbane for some reason. I went for a bike ride, like normal, and then had dinner and drinks with my cousin. Simple, but effective.
My new boss also started this week. It’ll take a bit before he gets his feet under him and we can see what he’s really like, but so far I’m cautiously optimistic. He sounds like he’ll bring a different management style, which is sorely needed. We’ve been overloaded at work lately, which always seems to be the case, but I genuinely really enjoy working on the team of 5 people I interact with the most, and so I haven’t been stressed out about it like some others.