Clearing a Path of Least Resistance

I have been riding another set of big waves crashing over the side of my entrepreneurial boat. And all the while I’m thinking, “Oh man I am so much dying to see my business succeed. I want so much for it to happen.” And I was doing my regular listen to Tara Brach and she asked us “When you are so deeply desiring something, ask yourself: What is it that I am truly desiring?” And lest I get so lost in the wanting or worrying about the things that might stand in the way of seeing it happen, I wrote down what it is I am truly desiring.
 
And I’ve been thinking a lot about one item on that list that I am reminded of every moment I move through the day as a bike commuter, as someone committed to reducing my environmental impact and living an active life. I currently slog and sweat and lug and battle with equipment, bags and my mixture of bike friendly and non-bike friendly clothing and footwear. I bike to work, to meetings, to errands. I try to bring reusable cutlery, collapsible tupperware, reusable water bottles. Most days I feel like a vagabond stuffing my bags, rooting around in my gear. It is fairly exhausting and all too often frightening without the proper bike infrastructure. It is, quite frankly, not easy. But I am committed, perhaps obsessed and also quite likely a nut job. And I know very well that there is no way that most people would put up with all the lugging, preparation, physical exertion and risk from cobbling together this existence.
 
But I also know that it can be so much better. And that is what I want to contribute to. Bags can be beautifully designed and be functional with sunglass compartments and water bottle holders, bike lights can have style AND be safe and effective, you can be the best dressed person in the office and be a bike commuter. All the things that we carry and what we carry them in can support our desire to live sustainably, to ride our bikes or to walk and to say “no” to disposable containers. Bike and pedestrian infrastructure can be safe, creative, and allow us to appreciate nature. It is not that I expect Reid Miller will make all these things happen, but that my company will be part of a revolution of entrepreneurs and changemakers that makes a sustainable lifestyle easier, more beautiful and downright pleasurable.
 
The reality is that a lot of us are going to have to move in the direction of living sustainably as part of our overall effort to bring our destructive relationship with the planet to an end. And yes it is tough, trudging around in the underbrush trying to be the change. But when my reserves are low and my faith wanes, I am reminded that by clearing the path someone else can follow behind me and make green choices with just a bit more ease and all the pleasure one gets from being liberated to live sustainably.