Everyone has talked or will talk about communing with nature. Getting out into the woods, a quiet beach or the mountains and allowing them to envelop you so your thoughts are part of the surroundings. It could be laying on a deserted beach or skiing a double black diamond (I stick to the bunny hills myself). In either situation you want to be one with your current background.

I never hear anyone mentioning “commune with urban”. I never said it either, until about two weeks ago. I have recently started biking more around Manhattan and Brooklyn and I really enjoy it. There are peaceful times when I am pedaling on a quiet street in Carroll Gardens or the crazy times in Chinatown when I am riding with a dump truck in front of me, a cab behind me, and five cars blocking the bike lane so it is useless. But in all these situations, I become one with the city. On the Manhattan Bridge early in the morning I am bird gliding over the city and imagining what is going on down below, on each corner and behind every window. When on the streets competing with cars, buses, people, and hot dog carts, I am a rat dashing in and out seeing where I can steal space just for a instant only planning a few seconds ahead because you do not know what will be around the next turn. I am the tranquility and the lunacy. “I” no longer exist, I am part of the larger organism I live in.

I arrive at my destination and I step back into my life with a feeling of attachment to something greater.