I can sing a rainbow...

What I had planned on wearing over my jersey.

Joy here...Well folks, I woke up this morning, and it was 4C outside.  That's right:  4.  That's barely above freezing.  When Cili Padi and The Trainer showed up this morning to get me, they made me turn right around and put on a jacket.

Cili Padi was dressed warmly in red, bordering on salmon, and The Trainer's jacket was a bright, aqua blue.  When we met up with The Professor along the way, she was wearing a primary yellow jacket, and with me in...well, you guessed it...pink, we were a veritable rainbow of colours pedalling in the cold morning light to get to the park.

What I actually ended up wearing!

The wind blew in our ears making a sound like the ocean crashing against the beach in a constant roar, blocking out the sounds of our voices, and every now and then, above that continual white noise of the blowing wind, we would hear layered above that the sound of leaves rustling in the trees, almost like rainfall in the wind.

So as the wind blew us, chilling our fingers and toes, I began to sing in my mind:
Red and yellow and pink and green
Purple and orange and blue
I can sing a rainbow, 
sing a rainbow, 
sing a rainbow too.
Armed with a kids' song in my head against the cool wind and the pain in my underused legs, I began to feel better and better about getting out of bed to face the cold.  So that perhaps what lies at the end of a rainbow isn't actually a pot of gold (although that sure would be nice).  Our little rainbow of colours out on a cold Friday morning brought me not gold nor a little leprechaun, but instead, it brought me a growing sense of calm.

Makin' it up the climb to Pink Lake lookout.

After a busy week with meetings leading me to feel angry, stressed, and frustrated, a bike ride (even in the cold) surrounded by friends with a silly song from childhood in my head is enough to be an antidote to all things stressful in my life that can end up piling up in my belly and in my heart and bringing me down.

In fact, despite the cold, I was feeling so good in the relative emptiness of the park that is usually bustling with other cyclists and runners and hikers and families that I could have just kept on going and going and going, finishing a whole loop of the park.

But that, my friends, will have to wait until Sunday...
...when maybe it won't be so cold.

Maybe.

And if it is...well, I'll just have to find my inner rainbow, won't I?

Over and out,
Joy