The Art of Loss, Learned by Motorcycle
While I can say I have had more than my fair share of loss, I’ve come to learn to handle it and move on by way of motorcycle. It took at least a couple months on the road, and probably more like most of the two years I’ve been living on mine, for me to get to this point. Whether it be leaving my loss behind, distracting me, running from it, or having time to process it, my motorcycle has been the perfect teacher. It’s been a long road but I can say I feel tremendous at my ability to handle and move on from just about anything now, so I’d like to share my insight.
Over the last few years I’ve lost all of my family, every lover I took, too many friends to count, beloved pets, sentimental treasures, and lately, my cherished motorcycle. Besides the things I didn’t have a choice about, I’ve also relieved myself of most of my belongings, which were largely unnecessary possessions to begin with. It used to be hard to look at something I paid for and say “I don’t need this, I’m going to get rid of it.” I found the more I did it, the lighter and happier I felt. The whole reason I started ridding myself of possessions was so I could ride my motorcycle around the world, in fact. When it came down to objects of sentimental value, I’ve even come to appreciate the time I had with the object once it’s not in my life anymore instead of being depressed about it. I’ve lost a lot of stuff while on the road, unintentionally of course, and I know that I can always replace it. What object matters to me today will be a good memory tomorrow while a new object will take its place of purpose. Of course, objects are the easiest loss to handle.
Next, to speak of losing people of value, it’s a painful lesson to work thru and there’s no way around that. I went thru many stages of regret, depression, blaming myself, blaming them, wishing I had, wishing I hadn’t, and blaming bad luck. As I spent time reorganizing my mind while riding, I found that once I accepted what has happened with the people who hurt the most, everyone else became easier. For me, it was dealing with my grandma and all the heavy memories that come with her. Now, as a traveler, I get very little time to see people I love and having accepted loss made it easier to appreciate what time I do get. Even knowing I’ve only got a few days with someone doesn’t bring me negative feelings because I know I’m going to cherish the time so much more. Being able to say “I’ve got lunch with this person, I’m going to enjoy every moment now, and look back later with fondness.” So maybe what I’m saying is... Being on my motorcycle, meeting people around the world, letting go of the past and not having expectations for the future has taught me that popular saying of “live in the moment”.
What made me realize a lot of these things was my recent motorcycle wreck; where I lost my extremely loved motorcycle of two years, 41,000 miles, and many memories. My motorcycle is my home and I spend more time with that machine than I do any, and all, humans combined. Most of my nights are spent next to it, I photograph it, fix it, go thru challenging circumstances with it, rely on it to get me here and there, share beautiful sights with it, and love it. I thought I would be devastated and unable to lose that machine so when that time came... Well, I was devastated. But I found that I moved on much easier than I thought I would and I’ve got another bike in my life that I love as much. I reminisce on the memories I made with the last one but now I look forward to the new ones with no ill-will. For me, it was the last big thing I could ever fear losing and it honestly wasn’t that bad.
Hopefully what I’ve said here has at least entertained you, but more I hope it has you thinking. My belief is that every day I want to be a better me than I was yesterday, and I work very hard to do that in everything I do. So I hope you find your path to being the best you possible, as well, and that this bit of writing can help in some way. If anything, I always recommend a nice, long ride because that’s where you get quality time to process. Rubber side down, my friends.
Over the last few years I’ve lost all of my family, every lover I took, too many friends to count, beloved pets, sentimental treasures, and lately, my cherished motorcycle. Besides the things I didn’t have a choice about, I’ve also relieved myself of most of my belongings, which were largely unnecessary possessions to begin with. It used to be hard to look at something I paid for and say “I don’t need this, I’m going to get rid of it.” I found the more I did it, the lighter and happier I felt. The whole reason I started ridding myself of possessions was so I could ride my motorcycle around the world, in fact. When it came down to objects of sentimental value, I’ve even come to appreciate the time I had with the object once it’s not in my life anymore instead of being depressed about it. I’ve lost a lot of stuff while on the road, unintentionally of course, and I know that I can always replace it. What object matters to me today will be a good memory tomorrow while a new object will take its place of purpose. Of course, objects are the easiest loss to handle.
Next, to speak of losing people of value, it’s a painful lesson to work thru and there’s no way around that. I went thru many stages of regret, depression, blaming myself, blaming them, wishing I had, wishing I hadn’t, and blaming bad luck. As I spent time reorganizing my mind while riding, I found that once I accepted what has happened with the people who hurt the most, everyone else became easier. For me, it was dealing with my grandma and all the heavy memories that come with her. Now, as a traveler, I get very little time to see people I love and having accepted loss made it easier to appreciate what time I do get. Even knowing I’ve only got a few days with someone doesn’t bring me negative feelings because I know I’m going to cherish the time so much more. Being able to say “I’ve got lunch with this person, I’m going to enjoy every moment now, and look back later with fondness.” So maybe what I’m saying is... Being on my motorcycle, meeting people around the world, letting go of the past and not having expectations for the future has taught me that popular saying of “live in the moment”.
What made me realize a lot of these things was my recent motorcycle wreck; where I lost my extremely loved motorcycle of two years, 41,000 miles, and many memories. My motorcycle is my home and I spend more time with that machine than I do any, and all, humans combined. Most of my nights are spent next to it, I photograph it, fix it, go thru challenging circumstances with it, rely on it to get me here and there, share beautiful sights with it, and love it. I thought I would be devastated and unable to lose that machine so when that time came... Well, I was devastated. But I found that I moved on much easier than I thought I would and I’ve got another bike in my life that I love as much. I reminisce on the memories I made with the last one but now I look forward to the new ones with no ill-will. For me, it was the last big thing I could ever fear losing and it honestly wasn’t that bad.
Hopefully what I’ve said here has at least entertained you, but more I hope it has you thinking. My belief is that every day I want to be a better me than I was yesterday, and I work very hard to do that in everything I do. So I hope you find your path to being the best you possible, as well, and that this bit of writing can help in some way. If anything, I always recommend a nice, long ride because that’s where you get quality time to process. Rubber side down, my friends.
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed my article!
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If you’d like to send some gas money thru PayPal, click here.