Touch

I am going to attempt to find beauty in the five senses (sight, sound, taste, smell, touch) and write about it.  There is enough ugly in the world, I am challenging myself to find beauty everywhere.  These will obviously be specific to me, but hopefully some inspiration will be sparked for you to find your own specific beauty similarly.

Today’s sense is Touch.

My immediate thought is technically more of a feel, but since I thought of it, nothing else seems to fit.  I have wonderful memories of nighttime bike riding in the summertime.  One summer at Interlochen, I had a 3-speed Schwinn bike that I would use to ride across campus and sometimes to the store down the street.  It was army green, had a built in light and a small little rack on the back where I could put a book or paperwork.  The model was even called “Breeze.”  I used to ride it down to a small little beach at the edge of campus where I would go swimming.  The road to the beach was a steady decline, affording me with an entire trip that could be coasted, hands free of the handlebars and outstretched to my sides.  I fell in love with the feel of the warm summer night air rushing by.

Later, on hot summer night in downtown Seattle, I would climb on my bike and ride to a distant point in the Arboretum, an outcropping of rocks into Lake Washington.  My route took me through the dark unlit and partially closed winding Interlaken Boulevard.  Coincidence?  The cool air from the protected greenbelt of forest was a refreshing break from the city streets and sidewalks that were still releasing the day’s heat.  I rode all the way to the lake, jumped in and rode home.  My still wet skin getting almost cold enough to shiver on my way back through the woods.

The beauty of touch is the wind against my skin, arms held wide with the promise of a late night swim in my future.

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