Pilgrimage on an Ego-Bike, My Mountain Biking Journeys

Fun on mountain bike trails or rail trails, Woodhill Forest, Auckland; Redwood Forest, Rotorua; Ngā Haerenga NZ Cycle Trails https://www.nzcycletrail.com

PHOTOS (left to right) - I have enjoyed bike riding all around the world: The Old Coach Road Rail Trail and my first e-bike ride with my niece Sandy in Ohakune, the Otago Rail Trail and Wanaka, all in NZ (to name a few), to Colorado, London in England, Malta, Slovenia, Barcelona, Croatia and Port Douglas, in Australia!

Years ago, someone told me that they “recognised me from behind because of my walk!” Oh! I thought, that’s cool, I have a walk! When I was travelling, many told me that they couldn’t understand me because, “you have a funny accent .. your name is what? Sierra?” Oh! I thought, that’s cool, I have a walk AND an accent. When I lived in the city I took my bike to get serviced and whilst talking with the repair fella we struck upon the subject of e-bikes, I of course went into the practiced speech of how lazy e-bikers were and it’s cheating and …. he cut me short with, “you need to get over your ego!” Oh! I thought, that was a bit harsh, yet, probably true! So, now I had a walk, an accent AND an ego! "You need an ego when you are playing top level sport, or any competitive venture, or you will get eaten alive by other egos," I argued to myself and yet, here I was, denying myself the e-bike experience because of it. Maybe it was time to lay the ego aside.

It seems that the ego does not want to go quietly! Nor to pack up its bags with a cheery, “thanks for the fun times, I’ll see you around!” It felt like I had a fight on my hands! I puffed out my chest and….!

And yet, what I was seeking was the desire NOT to fight anymore. Was I really going to “get over my ego” by playing the game of life by its rules? Or did I need to find another approach? In truth, the other approach actually found me. In the simple acknowledgement that there ‘must be a better way,’ (ACIM, 1965), I started on this unique journey into the unknown, only to find that it is actually the True Known and my travels seemed to unfold from this new point of attraction and to take on a Mind of their own. The inner world started deliberately expressing itself through the outer journey. I came to understand the Higher Mind and a lot more with it.

The Secret, Louise Hay, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer and Neale Donald Walsch’s ‘Conversations with God,’ amongst others, stirred my Mind to new thinking and my body to new action. I was getting in the zone, as we say in sports, something I had done often. From Mind Power workshops in Auckland and the study of A Course in Miracles, I ventured to Australia to explore The Journey, with Brandon Bays. On to Christ and Christian Science, Vipassana and Transcendental Meditation and Buddha and other religious ideas. I read books, I attended workshops, I listened to ideas and concepts and teachings from others who were living life from within and creating their own realities. I visited Holy Sites, new and old. I asked “where does God fit into all of this?” And “what is consciousness and energy and, and, and ….?” I found, or maybe they found me, the teachings of Seth (Jane Roberts), Kryon (Lee Carroll) and Abraham-Hicks and the Law of Attraction and Quantum Physics and a new understanding of the words in the Bible. I came to realise that I needed to surrender all of my pre-conceived ideas and beliefs and be prepared to be wrong about what I had thought before. Man, was I ever so wrong! I had to allow myself to understand that a lot of my beliefs weren’t really my own, but learnt from others and society, who had learnt from others who had, well, you get my drift. I started to question everything in my life, I lost part of my old self and I lost some acquaintances along the way, yet gained many and much more. I thought I had lost my mind and in reality I had. In Truth, I was finding my Mind. I began a process of unlearning that would give me the space to learn afresh. What I found was that this Source that we call God, or the Universe, or the Higher Mind or whatever term you find comfortable to use, is Love, and it is within each and every One and Thing and it patiently waits for you to uncover it, allow it and Be it. And if I can do it, so can you! Fear does rise and it rises so you can look upon it and ask it the simple question, “are you real to me? Do I want you in my life? Would God be thinking this or is this something that the ego made up?” Sometimes the fear feels like it is consuming you, yet these are the moments that you are so near to the Truth of Yourself that you can stop and with a few deep breaths, some gentle words of love to yourself and the knowing that you are not alone, you can give yourself a moment to find your harmony and to step forward. Just take the first step, isn’t that how we start every journey?

And so, more than the ‘journey of 1000 steps’ later, I have stopped seeking and started to listen to the inner guidance, to practice what I have learnt, to sometimes trip up, scrape my knees, but to always know that there is a Higher part of me that has a much better perspective of my eternalness, including all who I can meet along the way which enhances us both and many not even known to me, and to just surrender, ‘surrender to the small, still voice inside.’ (1 Kings 19:11-13).  As Michelangelo said when asked to describe how he created his masterpiece statue of David, from 1501-1504, “it’s simple. I just remove everything that is NOT David.” And so can we.

It’s as natural as riding a bike!

Pilgrimage on an Ego-Bike, My Mountain Biking Journeys