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Falynn Schmidt

Auspicious: Birthdays and Bike Rides Reflections

Falynn Schmidt will be riding on her third Israel Ride in the fall. You can read this post and others on her blog “Baynim“ This year is auspicious, although I probably said that last year too. Last year my Gregorian calendar (May 26) and Hebrew calendar (Sivan 16) birthdays aligned, which only happens once every 19 years (auspicious, right?). I am announcing the auspiciousness again because this year is my last in this most memorable of decades. [1]  I am not quite ready to head into the next 10 years, however I, please G/d, plan to use the next 12 months to prepare myself. To celebrate my birthday, I hope to do what I have done for the past three years, which is to ride my bicycle several hundred miles over the course of several days. It is this most childish of sports, indeed the only sport I learned to do in my childhood, that sustains my physical and mental health, makes me feel (and I dare say look) younger than my years, and gives me a grand goal of riding 400 miles. I will picture myself, wind in my pigtails, tush on a banana seat, turquoise tassles streaming from […]

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Dayenu

There is a particular majesty in cresting a hill and taking in the landscape: the great expanse of the Negev Desert or the sparkle of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), the Jordan River or the heights of the Golan. There is a sense of awe when your legs work in concert with all the other parts to keep you balanced physically and mentally with the proper levels of salt and water to propel you up and brace you on the way down. There is a mind-clearing meditation that riding 60 miles a day brings to your brain. And there is a sense of great gratitude that comes with setting a lofty goal and working four months to achieve it.

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