The Trick of the Ride

By Haven Duddy, A Living Lattice Field Note

We all know the feeling of being on a roller coaster — the rush, the drops, the loss of control. It’s one of those rare experiences where movement itself becomes emotion. But what if life isn’t about holding on tight and bracing for what’s ahead?

What if the real trick isn’t in facing forward at all — but in turning toward one another?

The Trick of the Ride

Sometimes I think life is like being on a roller coaster — only we’re not facing forward.

We’re facing each other.

We can clap hands, we can laugh, we can cry, we can share the moment inside the motion. And when we’re oriented toward one another instead of toward the track, something magical happens: the movement feels different. We stop anticipating the next drop or turn because our awareness shifts from what’s coming to what’s here.

Time slows down.

And for a while, you might even forget you’re on a ride at all.

The Secret Hiding in Plain Sight

The ride isn’t about trying to figure out which way it’s going.

It’s about realizing that the ride is the experience within the ride.

You could spend all your energy trying to map the curves and predict the loops, but you’d miss the wonder of being in it. Because whether you know it or not, the ride already has a track — it’s just not fixed the way we think. The track itself responds to the energy of the people in the car.

When the riders are alive with curiosity or joy, the ride speeds up.

When they hesitate, it slows.

When they can’t decide, it goes straight.

The motion of the ride is shaped by the collective energy inside it.

The track bends to belief, to emotion, to the invisible pattern of what’s being felt.

It’s not chaos — it’s choreography.

The World Ride

We thought we were each on our own separate roller coasters — every person on their own track, every life moving in isolation.

But that was the illusion.

There’s only one ride.

It’s the world ride.

We can move around within it, explore our corners and our views, but we can’t step off it entirely. We’re all part of the same car, looping through time and possibility together. And where the ride goes next — how smooth or wild or beautiful it becomes — depends on the collective energy of all of us.

If we move with harmony, awareness, and care for one another, the ride opens up.

It becomes something extraordinary — a shared journey instead of a chaotic scramble.

Maybe that’s the real secret:

It was never about where the ride was going.

It was about how we chose to ride it —

together.

“The ride isn’t random — it’s responsive.The track bends to belief.”