How much time do you have, I mean to think, right now?

If you are like me, the answer is probably, “Not much.” Keeping track of and organizing all the things that I have to DO seems to take up all my mental energy when it comes to everyday life.

That’s not what it’s like when I am travelling on a motorcycle.

When you are on a bike you can’t do anything but ride. It takes all of your attention to keep safe by looking out for hazards and keeping an eye on everyone else on the rode who, unfortunately, for the most part, find motorcycles invisible.

At least that’s what it is like in towns and cities.

On the open road it’s different again. Sure you have to keep alert to what’s around you and your body is occupied fully with managing the bike, but your mind all of a sudden has some space – some time – to think, or to not think.

When I am riding, for the most part, I ‘not think’. Perhaps there might be a song running through my head. If I am lucky it might not even be of the earworm variety.

Other than that, I tend to be simply an observer, taking everything in and not thinking about it.

When I stop, whether it’s for a meal or gas or just a stretch, that’s when the ideas start to flow.

I keep a little tiny notebook in my pocket or my handlebar bag so that I can make quick notes to ensure that these (always brilliant) ideas are captured before they disappear back the way they came, attacked and subdued by the daily responsibility of holding life together.

There is nothing to hold together when I’m on the motorcycle. Even its chores and maintenance have already been done by the time I’ve hit the road. That means the time I have when I am travelling has lots of room in it.

Room is what is needed to let creativity flow. Even if the ideas that come have to do with work (they do, occasionally, really!) it doesn’t feel like work because there are no constraints.

Thoughts are not pushed back by appointments or deadlines or interruptions, they get to take their time and go where they need to go.

I don’t find this creative time occurs the same way when I am bicycling or running for example. During long physical activity, even if it is repetitive and maybe even boring, I end up being too focused on my body. “What’s hurting, how can I move differently to make it stop? What would happen if I pushed a little harder here …”

When I am riding my motorcycle – out on the highway, I am not talking challenging dirt back roads here – it is like a kind of spa time for my mind. Dare I say a kind of meditation?

Time stretches out like a prairie highway that travels beyond the horizon and there is room for me.

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