Here is the other theme song I wrote a fear years ago for our cyclists. Sarah has performed this at the Coast of Hope bike ride a few times.

Again, the song has wider meaning than just one event. To me, it represents any ride or journey, including the one that Chris and Sarah will continue when they ride together tomorrow in the Pan Mass Challenge / PMC. (I’m posting more images from several years of the PMC, so you can see just how young Jessie and Sarah were when all of this activity began, and how mature Sarah is now, as an adult rider celebrating this tradition with her dad. You’ve already seen images from 2010 and 2011 in the past few days.)

None of us can imagine, from start to finish, just where we’ll go along life’s pathways. And most of all, what determines the finish line? There are so many milestones we pass, so many balloon arches underneath which we ride, so many bridges we cross, so many lines we draw and then step over, so many gateways through which we move … we don’t always know what’s around the corner or beyond the next crossing. You may cross one demarcation, but in many ways, the ultimate destination is always just ahead.

Enjoy the ride, enjoy the journey, as much as you can. It’s the passage from one way station to the next, the route from one stopping point to the other, that comprises our life together.

Here’s the song.

Spin
by Gail Doktor © 2009

Hearts cry out as wheels start turnin’
One more ride and one more day
Dare ask questions along this journey
Hope for answers along the way

Sure I’ve been lost and I’ve been broken
Look for hope after living through hell
Had to stop and start all over
Still carry scars from times I fell

      Oh you can’t measure life in speed and distance
      Or starting points and finish lines
      It’s where we go and who rides with us
      Every moment, every mile

What comes next? No way of knowing
Each arrival includes farewell
In our coming is our going
…in between we spin the wheel.

      Oh you can’t measure life in speed and distance
      Or starting points and finish lines
      It’s where we go and who rides with us
      Every moment, every mile

Find the beat
      Moving you onward
Breathe the song
      Of our going
Hear the drumming
      Of our heartbeats
Risk the turning
      Of the wheel

      Oh, you can’t measure life in speed and distance,
      Or starting points and finish lines
      It’s where we go and who rides with us
      Every heartbeat, every hope found
      Every moment, every mile