by ATriumphGoddess » Tue May 27, 2008 10:09 am
Yesterday I participated in a very poignant ride....a memorial ride in honor of a special friend of mine, Craig McLay, who died last Memorial Day. Craig and I got sober the same year (1986) and belonged to the same AA group- the In The Wind Group, sober biker folk...
I was with him when he did- we were riding together, he was taking me to a Native American burial ground out in Middleboro (we had run into each other at the MA BIA meet the day before, and had been talking about "sacred places" we had been to). He had a heart attack on his bike, went down and passed.....This may sound very gruesome, but it was an honor to have been with this man when he died- he was doing the thing he loved most- riding!-, on a gorgeous stone-walled, forested, twisty road. He died sober 21 years, and his passing was surrounded and led by the presence of his Higher Power.
Yesterday about 70 of us rode the ride he and I were taking last year.....Emotionally this was very powerful for me...Slowed when we reached the spot where he died- marked by a wreathed cross. Folks revved their engines and honked thier horns- he was very loved, was a unique character who had character if that makes any sense....We rode to a special spot by a reservoir, where the group stopped for a while and a few of us rode back to the spot for a quiet moment. We then rode along some gorgeous reservoir, passed the NA burial ground (after Craig's death, I went there and thanked Great Spirit for being close by to welcome Craig to his next place), and then another couple hours of backroads riding on a perfect late spring day.
The afternoon was a pigroast and gathering of sober bikers celebrating LIFE.
"Just keep your knees in the breeze, Sister!"