Small moments

http://www.time.com/time/today-in-pictures/0,31511,1960529,00.html

I came upon this event today and did not realize what I had seen. Along the usually empty road I saw almost a hundred women cycling in a large pack. As they were passing the oil rig, many took notice and seemed to pedal on with renewed vigor. Perhaps they were involved in some race, their colors certainly denoted they were sponsored and their determination suggested competition. Looking quite small, as we all do, against the tall sand dunes these women seemed to fly by and within two minutes they were gone. I, however, did not forget this scene, I took a mental picture as they passed me and thought long and hard about how symbolic this mental image of mine could be. In the foreground there were the female cyclists and in the background there were large tan sand dunes and one lone oil rig lit aflame at the top. I remembered seeing some of the cyclists push on harder even though they were obviously tired and I thought that perhaps this flaming landmark was also a marker in the race and that the end was perhaps near where I was currently. The beacon of light may also have given the riders some confidence. I say this because motion is relative to your location and if your eyes can not see that you are moving you will not feel that you are moving, like when you are in an elevator you know that you are moving up but you do not see the movement. This would not apply fully to them, but because of the barren landscape of this desert there would be relatively few if any landmarks to notice your motion from. Although they know they are moving quickly the length of the desert most likely seems tenfold due to the empty nature of it. How happy would I have been if I had biked some designated mileage through this landscape and finally gazed upon the tower aflame? Perhaps it felt to them as a needed checkpoint on their long race. I wondered if any of the ladies had remembered that point of the race as I had or thought back on it deeply. I also wondered who won but I had plenty of time to figure out that later, and right then all I wanted was to remember that moment and how without either me or the women expecting it, a simple oil rig had perhaps impacted part of our lives. I do enjoy these little moments where life takes us by surprise and feel that those are moments I live for. I always try to take a different path than I did the day before and look for the small things, because I feel like it is these small moments and small victories that lead us to a satisfied and happy self throughout our lives.