Where I am Meant to Be

Lonely ST2No matter what the weather is like, for the next ninety days I will not be riding my motorcycle.  That is by choice.  By choice of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation which sternly demanded my license plate due to my failure to pay $8.  In demanding my license plate the Department of Transportation suspended my registration for the next 90 days.

I failed to pay $8 to my motorcycle insurance carrier. $8 was the increase in my premium when I lost the multi-vehicle discount on my policy.  I lost the multi-vehicle discount when I returned my first bike to its rightful owner, a gracious soul who sacrificed one of his beloved steeds for a complete noob to learn on.  It turned out that my friend’s steed was not right for me.  I got the ST and for some time had two bikes.  I thought I was paid in full, but I wasn’t.  I left many notices unopened, assuming it was simply junk.

I was not just $8 short, but angry and embarrassed.  Who would want to hire a lawyer whose own motorcycle Insurance policyinsurance had lapsed?   Other than complying with the Commonwealth’s directive, there was no action I could take.  In the process of compliance, as I was removing my plate, I suddenly thought of the words of Eckhart Tolle: “Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally.

Lonely ST1I could neither remove myself from this situation nor change it.  My only option was to accept my suspension fully, including taking complete, public and unconditional responsibility for it.  As my consciousness shifted, I suddenly saw my suspension as one of many gifts that motorcycling has brought into my life.  The message was as simple and clear as it was profound – whether you are on two wheels or not, be ok with whatever is, whatever is may be.    As Jon Lennon has famously sang in All You Need is Love:  “There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be.”  I am exactly where I was meant to be and I am so deeply grateful for it.

Henry YampolskyAbout the author: Henry Yampolsky is a new rider and writer who finds motorcycling to be an extension of his meditation.  When not riding, writing, meditating or contemplating doing one of the three, Henry spends time with his wife, Juliya, and works as a lawyer in Philadelphia.

4 Comments

  1. BMW Dick

    Yams:
    It must have happened in your Alpha state, because you picked the best time of year to hang up your helmet. There's an excellent chance we won't see roads without gravel and chemical residue until the end of March.

    1. Henry Yampolsky

      I agree, Dick. Better now than in the spring!

  2. Henry Yampolsky

    In this instance, the government did what it was supposed to do – it followed the law. It is me who is fully at fault.

  3. GlennJ

    Isn't government great?

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