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Bike riding a lesson in courage

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A few weeks ago my beautiful daughter provided me with a perfect example of this definition of courage. To give a bit of background to the story, over the past year I have taught her how to ride a bicycle. My motivation was somewhat selfish because her ability to ride a bike has allowed me to do running training while spending time with her. Plus the added bonus of hopefully creating an exercise habit for her.
Over the past year (with my less than expert tutoring) she has become a relatively competent cyclist but still nervous of stopping and cornering without me beside her to steady her. A few weeks ago she was with a group of kids working on bicycle handling skills and part of the challenge required riding through the bush track at East Point, without me by her side. She was quite nervous on her first trip through, and had a small spill and a number of shaky patches. Her second time through was faster and more confident with the result that she came out at the end proudly saying “Did you see how fast I went around that corner mum?”
Last week she graduated to a track bike at the Velodrome. This meant she was much higher from the ground and no brakes. She needed to learn to balance on the bike to start and to slow down to a stop using the pedals. Again, she was very nervous at the start but a couple of “stacks” later, she is now confident. It is wonderful for me to see how her self-confidence and self-esteem has increased along with her bike riding skill.
As her mum I am in awe of her courage, and I have told her how proud of her I am because even though she was scared she still gave it a try. I learn from her every day, now it is my turn to practice courage, when I am confronted with my fears.
The lessons in courage I learnt from Lucy are:
1. After we confront our fears we can find new confidence in ourselves.
2. When learning something new we might have to fall a couple of times before we get the hang of it.
3. It’s okay to be nervous, give it a try anyway

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