Here I Stand and Face the Rain

I was supposed to be at a trailhead in Park City right now. I was to be there with a bunch of Boy Scouts eager -- or at least caused -- to begin a 25 mile (40 km) bike ride for their Bicycling Merit Badge. This was to have come after a night camping near Jordanelle Reservoir. However, I am in front of my computer, in my warm house, listening to my daughter instead. I'm not saying that's bad.

That does, however, mean that I'm also not at 5-mile Pass getting ready for the Intermountain Cup race there today. That is the race I've chosen as my benchmark of fitness for a goal I set some years ago to be in better shape at age 40 than I was at age 30. I try to get to it every year, but have missed the past few years because our ward has had baptisms on the first Saturday of May for those years. This year is no different. I am to conduct the baptism this morning. I was going to miss that for the Scout ride and camp out, but now it's back to re-creating plan A after that was cancelled.

It is amazing how the good things in life can get in the way of biking. And, it's amazing how priorities can determine which one to choose. I was off the bike all week. I don't regret it, either, amazingly. I don't mean to make this a "churchy" post, but my family's involvement with our church is the root of the story. My wife was invited to be a presenter at the Brigham Young University Women's Conference this past week. She did a great job of that! In order to support her in this, I chose to attend her session of the conference, even though I am not (albeit to some people's surprise) a woman. I know, shocking. Well, it turns out men are allowed to attend, particularly if their wife is a presenter. With the preparations for that, I chose to have a car available at home this week, so no biking to work.

Then, even though I had not pre-registered, I could have still gone out to the race today, except I have chosen to volunteer my time at church with some responsibilities. One of those is conducting the baptisms of children turning age 8. Knowing I had committed to that made the decision to forego a bike race easier to make.

So, I guess the bottom line is this: even thought biking is one of the great things in my life, it's far from the only thing, and sometimes I need to keep my priorities in perspective to make wise decisions for my family and my life. Next week I should be back to the commuting again.