All I need is love and encouragement. You can stop reading now if you just clicked through to find out. Love and encouragement. They are funny things to write about on the internet, this vast digital swamp of hate and discouragement.

It’s almost like I’m issuing an open invitation for abuse. I don’t actually need abuse. I can do that bit myself.

I’m fortunate to have everything I need in a material sense. It doesn’t take much. Food, clothes, and shelter. Healthcare when necessary. These are not small things. Not everyone has them.

After that all I need is love and encouragement.

Love and encouragement are the antidotes to inertia and doubt, to fear, which is just doubt’s dark alter-ego. Love and encouragement never don’t make me feel better.

I have written a lot about trail running shoes, but I could run barefoot if I had enough love and encouragement. I could talk about mountain bikes until you fell asleep in a puddle of drool, but I could ride anything in the woods if I had enough love and encouragement.

Of course, this boomerangs back to me, as all things do. Would my kids love mountain biking more if I was more loving and encouraging? Probably.

Would everything go better? Yes.