Where it began…
There is something about being a writer and a rider (of the mountain bike variety) that leads both to the need to annunciate clearly with my friends and family and to witness the development of a story in a natural, muscular way. I often tell my family that I am going to “ride.” Sometimes they, clarify— “To ride or to write?” For me, the answer has become one in the same. Over two years ago, I took up the sport of mountain biking. I have been writing fiction and non fiction for most of my life, but when I starting hitting the trails, my writing transformed. More importantly, I began to meet people who inspired me athletically, creatively, and spiritually. So I want to use this space to discuss the intersection of my two loves, my two passions. Both my love of writing and my love of riding revolve around the appreciation of land, people, and the inexplicable interactions between nature and spirit.
Why Mountain Biking?
I am the mother of two active, funny, curious boys. I love being a mother, but not in the traditional sense that I was told I should. I heard stories of how new mothers instantly fell in love with their children at first sight and how they wanted to quit their jobs and stay home to raise them. Those narratives sound wonderful, but I distinctly remember looking at my sons and seeing strangers—really cute strangers. Of course it didn’t take long to fall in love, but it wasn’t immediate. I hated staying at home during maternity leave. It drove me crazy. People talked to me differently. I was a mother with no other identity, or at least it felt that way. By the time my second son was in daycare and I back at work, I was well over 60lbs overweight. I was pretty numb. I had forgotten who I was and what my writing was about. I fell back on old writing I had completed, but struggled to start on a fresh project.
And then Fire Mountain Trails system opened in my hometown of Cherokee, NC. I was first introduced to it as the Executive Director of the Cherokee Preservation Foundation. We provided a planning grant for the project. As it neared completion, I began to ask more and more questions about mountain biking (MTB) and discovered that I knew lots of people who enjoyed the sport. I also needed something new to explore. I needed a new challenge and I needed a new way to find my inner-athlete again. I am firm believer that once an athlete, always an athlete. I had been a pretty decent basketball player throughout high school and continued working for my college team and eventually coaching when I returned to education. However, partly because of my glory days, my joints were shot! I needed a high impact, potentially competitive sport, that didn’t completely destroy what little cartilage I had left. Cycling, of any kind, held the key. Most importantly, the introduction to a brand new sport was humbling! I’ll save those stories for another post.
So, as a result of this new passion (and a few other changes), I’m down sixty-five pounds, will have my debut novel on the shelves in 2020, am rocking an untold amount of fresh scars, and am finally feeling like I am being seen for who I really am—imperfect but whole!