On the road

I spread my arms wide open into the air, it is a windy, murky weather. At the speed the motorbike is moving, if I lifted myself a little more maybe the wind could add wings on my arms and I’d fly above the city.

I look up and watch the sky, the only thing I seem to not leave behind in a blur rush. It’s raining, light rain. I look at the cars, buildings, people, to my sides. Every person has a different perception of this exact moment that I’m in and even though they’re so close to me, I don’t know what they think or who they are. And neither do they know me.

I’m on my uber bike ride, my driver and I don’t communicate the entire journey. We began by confirming the otp to start the ride. His purpose is to drop me to my destination. Despite the proximity, I’m oblivious of what he thinks of this moment, this ride, the road, the weather, the people around us. I’m curious of what’s in his mind right now. While I feel I could escape the ordinary, I could paint myself in the texture of this city, I could be oblivious to any kind of pain, I could fly above the people and fly away from the misadventure I’ve been trapped into, maybe he is cursing life to have thrown him into this situation, maybe he just wants an escape from his exhaustion, maybe he is only worried he doesn’t break a traffic signal. Anyway, I wouldn’t know. I wish I could tell him how thank full I am of him, how remarkable a work he’s doing and how if he had not, maybe I couldn’t have felt so alive in just one moment. But I do not. I cannot rather. The silence that we share is peaceful. Too peaceful for me to break it, to bond up with him or make his day. I’d rather a stranger make my day without his knowledge of it than ruin it with words.

I’m selfish, I know. But often such feelings are too difficult to explain. The rush of wind through my clothes, the acceleration of blood in my veins, the excited yet calm & happy hormones that cause fireworks in my brain, make me complete. In these moments I realize how ordinary, simple and temporary happiness is. It is about these moments where you connect, without words, without gestures, without even asking for it. Our entire life is a combination of these unnoticeable, tiny moments in which we feel we can breathe, we feel complete, we feel we are enough. And to be happy you don’t need grand gestures or the necessity of a big event, it can happen through mediums you don’t even recognize.

But it isn’t constant, it’s a temporary rush, like the air hitting you while you’re on a motorbike on the road.

In that moment, you can fly.