Seeing Change When It Happens

SEEING CHANGE WHEN IT HAPPENS
1.1 When I lived in Ottawa I used to go skating every Sunday with a group of friends. Like cyclists we’d often skate in a pack, one behind the other with the leader blocking the wind so that those behind wouldn’t have to work as hard.
1.2 The challenge of skating in a group like this was that in order to get the benefit of the draught we had to stay really close to the skater in front of us. If we got too far behind we would lose the draught, the wind would catch us and then we’d quickly get left behind. So if the space between us and the person in front of us opened up a little, we skated a little bit harder to tighten the gap, and if it got too tight we poked our head up into the wind to slow us down. It was a balancing act.
1.3 As a beginner and not very fit at the time I would consistently get left behind. The reason I would get left behind is that as the speed of the group changed I wouldn’t realize it till the person in front of me started to accelerate. I’d try hard to keep up but I was to slow to match the increase in speed. The gap in front of me would open enough for the wind to catch me and then I’d get pulled back and I’d lose the group. The people behind me would suffer as well and have to skate around me to catch back up.
1.4 Eventually I realized that part of my problem was that I kept my eyes on the person in front of me. Anytime the leader speeded up, the change would ripple through the pack like a ripple through a slinky and I wouldn’t notice the change until the person in front of me started to accelerate. By the time I started to speed up it was too late, the group had accelerated away and I was left behind.
1.5 I started to keep my eyes on the leader of the pack so that I could see change as it happened and be ready for it by the time it got to me. Whenever she or he speeded up I watched the speed change ripple through the pack and I accelerated just as it got to me. I increased my speed in sync with the person in front of me and I stayed with the pack with little extra effort.
1.6 I also moved my awareness through the whole group so that if someone else in the group ahead of me lost the draught I was ready. I was looking to the horizon and seeing everything between me and it. By seeing everything that I could see, I saw what I was trying to be a part of. Acting on what I saw I became a better part of it.
1.7 Looking to the horizon, whether it’s the road ahead or the people in front of us, we see change and we handle it together. It’s not so much looking ahead in time as it is looking ahead in space to see the future.
1.8 We see change when it happens so we’re ready for it when it gets to us.