It’s Just the Battery

“The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one’s self to destiny.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

My scooter, aptly named the Buddy, has been sitting in the garage collecting dust, not starting for the past three summers. Each summer I kept charging the battery and it wouldn’t start. Thinking there was a bigger problem, l let it sit to deal with it later. Later never came.

“I love the feeling of the fresh air on my face and the wind blowing through my hair.” – Evel Knievel

Realizing summer is winding down, I picked up a new battery this week to see if it could be as simple as that. When I tried to start it, nothing but it sounded different than before. I tried again and again but no spark. Not wanting to drain the new battery, I tried the manual kick start. Two, three, four…and seven was the lucky kick. Tentative, the engine sputtered. After a moment, I revved the engine and a puff of black smoke came out, clearing three years of idleness out of the engine.

More confident that it wouldn’t kill, I headed down the street, gradually picking up speed. After a few times around the block, I went full throttle, wind in my face, claiming victory with a few hoots and hollers. The Buddy rides again! As I pulled her back in the garage, I turned her off and then on again just to be sure. Fired right up.

Sometimes, many times, we make a bigger deal of things and hesitate to try and take action, even one step. We put it off until later and later never comes, only regret for not trying. Our mind is a powerful creation – it can hold us back or when we align it with our heart, it can propel us into endeavors we’d never dare. We risk disappointment and dive in with great abandon.

Most of the time, it’s something as simple as replacing the battery, nothing more. Start changing some batteries, dive in and enjoy life.