The Blessing Of The Bike...s...ss

It was a beautiful day for the blessing of the bikes. Being the primary organizer (it was my idea, after all), I dutifully put on my helmet and rode my bicycle to church, arriving at about 9:05. While riding on the municipal bike path I thought of all the things that didn't get done. The sign for the front of the church that I'd thought of last weekend but didn't have time to make. The idea I had last night coming home on the train that we should have made signs to put up along the bike path a week ago. The people who told me that they would help but never called or even showed up for the event. The newspaper article that never appeared in the local paper. The lack of response from the local bicycling club and a local organization that collects used bikes to refurbish and distribute to kids who need them. Fortunately, it was too nice of a day to dwell on all of that, and I'd already decided that no matter what happened, it was a first time event, and it didn't have to be large or perfect to be successful.

I turned off the bike path just before it goes into the park across the street from our parish, and this is what I saw!

Someone made a sign! I later learned that Lois our priest had painted it and put it up on Tuesday. Shows you how many times I drive by the parish when I'm not going to church!!

Since the bicycle club and the charity hadn't responded, I didn't have to put up tables. I hadn't brought any refreshments, because (a) I had no clue how many people would show up, and (b) I wasn't lugging refreshments to church on my bike. So basically, I paced until Lois and Newlin arrived, followed shortly by Mom with Gabriel her teacup Shih Tzu in tow. We did the last little bits of prep work, I paced some more, and we greeted the photographer from the local paper who showed up a few minutes before the scheduled start of the service.

10:00 a.m., scheduled time, and this is how many bikes were there:

That would be my bike. Here's another view of the lone bike that I took simply because I found the play of the shadow on the grass intriguing:

We waited until a few minutes after 10, and then we blessed my bike. Lois decided to bless any vehicle that drove by the church. About 10:20 someone attending another meeting at the parish rode up on his bike. He'd ridden it today because he'd seen the sign. So we blessed his bike.

Lois continued to bless passing vehicles while Newlin and I took down the sign. Just as we'd folded it up, two more parishioners rode up. Here we are blessing the last two bikes of the day.

Was it a success? For the eight of us who participated, definitely. Are we going to do it again? Yes. In April.

I have a list, and this time when people say they're interested, I'll hand them an assignment!

Peace,
Jeffri