This week includes thoughts on a bike ride I almost bailed on, something I did quit years ago, and a dog who takes his time but commits, fully, once he knows he's safe.
It’s about staying. It’s about quitting.
And it’s about not rushing either choice.
🍽 The Main Course: Staying
Yesterday I got on my Peloton bike, and scrolled through my bookmarked rides.
Usually I remember exactly why I saved something. Sometimes it's music I liked, or a theme, or some specific structure that felt good the first time around.
This one? No clue.
Apparently I’d taken it before, and I must have thought it was worth repeating. But about fifteen minutes in I was already questioning it. The music wasn’t really doing it for me. He’s not one of the instructors I'm typically drawn to. Nothing was wrong. It just wasn’t especially compelling.
And then he said, almost casually:
“Don’t be afraid of the friction. It’s that friction that sharpens the knife.”
And I thought, oh. Right.
That’s why I bookmarked this.
It wasn’t about the ride. It was about the things he said, and how they made me think.
If you avoid the stone, the knife stays dull.
If you press too hard, you damage the edge.
It’s the steady contact that sharpens it.
The repeated, light, steady contact is enough to do it's job.
It might be resisting the urge to bail too quickly.
Or letting the extra brownie you ate just be about a delicious brownie, nothing more.
Or not rushing to fix or eliminate some discomfort.
That’s friction. It doesn’t look impressive or feel dramatic. Sometimes it just feels mildly inconvenient.
And then, a few minutes later, he said, “Without challenge, there’s no change.”
Which I appreciate mostly because it’s gentler than the old no-pain-no-gain thing.
And I kept thinking about how we tend to hear “challenge” and imagine something dramatic.
What if challenge can just be that light, steady contact with something that doesn’t immediately resolve, but gradually shifts things.
The ride itself? Pretty average.
But I’m glad I didn’t skip it.
💈 Table Talk: Quitting
I didn’t quit that ride.
I have quit other things though. Like coloring my hair.
The blond started turning brown in my late 30s and that's when I started coloring it.
But I stopped coloring it a few years ago, when the brown started giving way to gray.
Not because I had a big stance about it. I just got tired of all of it. The quiet background hum of tracking dark roots, the overall maintenance, the mental note about when I had to book the next appointment. And the time. And the money.
This didn’t feel like the kind of friction that sharpens. It felt like drag.
At some point it was just…I don’t want to keep doing this. So I didn’t.
Every now and then I’ll see a photo and think…huh. Maybe.
And then I go about my day.
Some friction wears you out.
Some leaves you sharper.
🍰 Sweet Moment(s): Goofing Off
We submitted this photo of Benny to a local pet photo contest.
Category: “Goofiest”.
Which feels...accurate.
Ramona was just out of frame, embarrassed for him. 🤣
Until next time - more dogs, less dogma. Always.
Carol
P.S. New here? Welcome! You can find old issues, here, if you're curious.
