Life in training

I recently taught a young man how to ride a bicycle. Someone had told me it would be a lot easier to teach an adult than it would a child, since he has all of his gross and fine motor skills. Even thought he learned the skill on just a couple of hours, I was - in a somewhat nostalgic way- surprised to see that even the most basic parts of riding a bike were so foreign to this young man. From hand placement, to the act of pedaling, to the way to sit on the seat. I started thinking about the capacities that I, and many of us, may take for granted. I thought about how each and every one of us is unique in the experience and ability that we have, and how easy it may be to take this for granted. How is one to assume that the person sitting next to them on the bus, or across from them in the classroom, has the same experience in mind, in body, or in soul? This was a lesson in compassion for me. Thanks to this young man, I feel that I can be more sensitive to the easily overlooked fact that we are each on a unique journey, and the only way to truly know anyone is to ask, connect, and have an honest relationship. We are all learning to ride the vehicle of life, on our own pace, and each on our unique path with its own terrain.