West Malaysia loop ride

There’s something to be said about serendipity. It always confounds me how seemingly random events can collude to make sense out of a big mess of thoughts. Now I know the word “collude” gives the impression of a less than noble outcome. But I chose this word purely because it sounded a lot better than “collaborate” which is over-used, over-rated and way over-glamorized.

You should know by now that I am planning for a long ride to loop the West Malaysian peninsular next month (its February 2010 now). I am really excited about this ride and have been working hard to put up pages on this blog to tell people about the ride. I am doing this in the spirit of sharing so everyone knows what we will be doing…AND so that everyone can attempt something similar with the benefit of our experience.

I was chatting with a friend last night on Facebook and the topic of this ride came up in our conversation. He asked me if I thought of making this a charity ride…hmmm…that sounded interesting to me. So we chatted a little more.

You are probably wondering what so serendipitous about that! Well, earlier in the evening, I had a conversation with my mom too about a kid who had a special condition (probably Autism but I cannot be sure) and needed special care. I remember that we ended our conversation (my mom and I) rather unsatisfactorily because we could not find any solution to obtain special care for this child.

Fast forward back to my Facebook conversation. He suggested tying up with AWWA (Asian Women’s Welfare Association). Now I was thinking more along the lines of the Children’s Cancer Foundation, but was interested to find out more about AWWA. He told me that they also work on care for children with special needs…CLICK!

We shared more about the subject and decided that we should meet up and see how far we can take this. What rang in my head loud and clear was him telling me that I could make this an annual thing…to dream big. Hmmm…now THAT was a thought!!!

So I woke up this morning with that thought still running circles in my head. I had that feeling in my stomach and I knew I was hooked! I chatted with a few other friends about this casually…and it started to get clearer to me what could be possible: a way to allow the motorcycling community to powerfully impact the lives of children with special needs.

Nothing is fixed at the moment…suffice to say that this ride which started as an adventure for me…now has the potential to become something a lot bigger than me. I’d love to hear more from you (if you are reading this) what you feel about this. What do you think can be done? Would you like to contribute? That kinda thing…and together…let’s dare to dream…and dream BIG!

Hear from you soon!