“This isn’t a political reflection. It’s a story about recognizing the moment when ego loosens its grip on the shifter and the soul takes the handlebars.”

I took a cold weather bike ride along the Merrimack River today, bundled up and feeling good to be back on familiar roads. Amesbury, Newburyport, West Newbury, and Merrimack are all small New England towns I’ve pedaled through for years. What struck me wasn’t the wind or my breathing or the bite of November air; it was the signs.

Not directional signs … political ones.

Lined up in yards, clustered on corners, pinned to trees.

Strong language. Strong feelings. Strong conviction.

A year ago, I know exactly what would’ve happened inside me.

Curiosity mixed with tension.

A familiar pull to engage, question, or dissect what I was seeing.

An inner urgency to make sense of someone else’s viewpoint.

But this time, something different happened.

The signs caught my attention, yes … but only for a moment.

I felt the first flicker of ego rising …. that internal posture that says,

“I have a respond to this. I need to sort this out. I need to take a position.”

And then, like catching a wind wobble in the bike before it turns into a fall,

I saw what was happening.

I actually talked to my ego as if it were an old friend riding alongside me.

“I know what you’re trying to do.

I’m not here for that.

I recognize the old patterns.

But not today.

I’m here to ride.”

And just like that, my attention returned to the river.

The cold air against the balaclava on my face.

The steady rhythm of my legs.

The quiet beauty of bare winter branches leaning over the water.

The peace of movement without mental argument.

I realized I don’t need to be the standard-bearer for anything outside myself.

People express what matters to them.

They live their own stories, hopes, beliefs, and concerns.

I don’t need to interpret or respond to any of it.

The river doesn’t ask me to judge.

It just flows and it has its own spirit.

Signs will appear and disappear with the political seasons,

but the river continues her steady course toward the sea.

And maybe the real work now … the deep work …

is learning to listen more to the river

and less to the signs.

Steady instead of reactive.

Present instead of provoked.

Flowing instead of tightening up.

As I rode, I felt something I haven’t felt in a long time:

forward progress … not on the bike beneath,

But in my mind as my wheels rolled past the signs.

What do you think….Do the signs hand your EGO or your Mindset the wheel?