What do you do for pure fun? And, I mean pure fun.  Not fun to accomplish something or fun as in making something so we have a creative project when we are finished, but just for the fun of the very thing itself?

For years I never knew how to answer that question.  While others played video games or gathered a suntan, I would have fun sewing, or reading, or painting the bathroom.  My fun usually had a purpose or an end in mind.  My life was made up of a series of responsibilities and something always had to be done.  I could never even think of doing something fun – even my kind of fun – until all my work was completed.  And my list of things that had to be done was never ending.  So, who had time for fun?

Imagine my great joy, and not a little surprise, to find that I discovered bike riding as FUN!  After more than 45 years without riding a bike, my husband and I recently gifted each other with bicycles for our 36th anniversary.  And, to my delight I’ve discovered that bike riding is fun!

We have discovered urban trails and National Parks and the National Arboretum.  After a brief period of getting accustomed to the ride, going out yesterday was pure fun.  We went out to Sharpsburg, MD, the site of the battle of Antietam, and biked the park.  The day was gorgeous, the temperature perfect, the scenery beyond belief, and the bike ride lovely.  It was a wonderful mix of flat stretches with slow inclines among the rolling hills of Maryland.

Riding my bike yesterday brought back so many memories of being a child and just riding for riding’s sake.  Entire days during the summers of my youth were spent riding my bike through the neighborhoods.  My bike was like my best friend and there was not a day I did not ride it and meet with others who would ride and play with me.

Riding brought back to me a freedom of space and place.  It brought with it a rapid movement that blew the wind up in my face and made me feel like I was flying.  It really was FUN and filled me with the grace of memories and movement.

What do you do for fun?  What graced moments are you discovering?