New Year, New Hope

It’s fitting to begin 2014 with a short post about a bicycle, since I ended 2013 with a short post about a bicycle.

December’s post was about ending an era—our final goodbye to an old bike belonging to our firstborn child. Somehow we kept the bike for forty years, thinking—always—that it would be ridden again and as appreciated as it was back in 1974 when it was a thrilling birthday gift for an eleven year old girl. We finally got wise and released the bike from the throes of sentimentality.

January’s post is about beginning a new way of living for someone we’ve never met through the donation of a Buffalo bicycle in our name. The group that gives away these sturdy, dependable bikes is called World Bicycle Relief—USA, and you can read about it by clicking above on the italicized name of the organization.

We were delighted to learn that, instead of sending cookies, fruit-of-the-month, or other lovely but dispensable Christmas gifts, our donor sent the gift of enterprise to an unknown person halfway around the world in our honor. That is not to say, of course, that we didn’t greatly enjoy our tangible gifts that arrived over the holidays from friends and family. We loved everything we received (especially the handmade eyeglass cases and handkerchiefs from a certain seven-year-old).

But World Bicycle Relief has a concept that deserves support and recognition, so I'm doing my bit by mentioning its good work here.