Just a newsflash… I know that the lion’s share of our readership is north of the border, and with that, I want to wish you guys a belated Thanksgiving. While my Canadian friends were giving thanks for the blessings they have, I had a Thanksgiving of my own here in the last week.
You see, Hurricane Matthew hit my world.
More importantly, Hurricane Matthew hit everything that I love.
My parents live on the coast of Georgia.
My old lady’s parents live on the coast of South Carolina.
My daughter lives in Miami.
My home is less than an hour from the Atlantic Ocean.
Yet despite the worst hurricane to hit the area in decades, the only damage that the people that I care about had was some water in my father-in-law’s car.
So this week, I celebrated my own Thanksgiving of sorts. Oh, sure, we had some branches down in the yard, some bushes got torn up, but the things that are really important? Every one was spared. If that isn’t a reason to give thanks, I don’t know what is.
Let me tell you, though, having seen the devastation that is present all around me – hundreds of trees down, many homes damaged, roofs torn off, lives lost or ruined, I can deal with having to clean up a few sticks.
Here’s what I want you to do – make sure that the people that are really important to you know how important they are. Your wife, your kids, your folks … even the guys that you ride with.
Cause you never know when that day is going to come.
Plenty of us take life for granted and getting out on the road is a release from the silliness of day to day. Hell, a lot of us like the added challenge of riding a bike and the feeling of being in the scenery instead of just looking at it through the windows. We’ve all seen the thrill-seekers on crotch rockets jockeying through traffic at twice the speed limit, but I’m not talking about adrenaline junkies – I’m talking about just drinking in all that life has to give you.
Thank the God of your own understanding that he, or she, or it, gave you the chance to wake up today and take another breath.
Be happy for the annoyance of paying the power bill – folks in Haiti don’t even have a glass of water to drink.
Be thankful that you have the chance to enjoy a day off – plenty of folks wish they could have a job to even go to.
And thank the Good Lord that he saw fit to introduce the Davidson brothers to William Harley…