We often talk about falling in love. The entire narrative revolves around the need for someone to love us, to look at us with eyes in which the entire world melts simply because we are there. We talk about partners, goals, plans. And now, as the year comes to an end and moments of reflection arrive, it becomes easiest to see what is missing and in the process of reaching our arms.
But falling in life —that true trust fall, a free fall into one’s own experiences — is the ultimate essence. So often explained with words, analysed, endlessly rationalised by the world, the culture and society we constantly consume day in and day out. Yet it was never truly meant for the mind. Because life is not lived with the head. Life is walked through with the heart. And it is the only way worth going.
Throw yourself into the experience. The way you throw yourself into the sea. The way I spill these words onto paper and let all the conversations I have had with myself unravel from my throat and my heart and reach you.
Throw yourself into feeling. Into emotion. Into thought. Into decision. Because only then do you realize that no matter how vast the oceans seem, we are floating within just a few square meters. As the water flows onward, those few meters linger for only a handful of heartbeats. Five seconds later, we are already facing a new wave, too far away to say goodbye to the one that was holding us just moments ago.
For years, I have been carrying a motto with me: I will never have regrets. I will try everything at least once. I will give myself the freedom to see who I can become when I make decisions responsibly, yet freely. When I think through every step ahead of me, but refuse to be paralyzed by fear.
Once I’ve read that all we need for a fulfilled life is five seconds of courage.
Five seconds to tell someone we love them. Five seconds to raise a hand and share our poetry with complete strangers. Five seconds to step onto the stage of a stuffy bar and sing “It’s Raining Men” with a best friend at karaoke — and then laugh for hours at those minutes of embarrassment and tangled tongues.
In five seconds, I applied for a job I truly love. In one second, I hurt someone — and in the next, I gathered the courage to apologize.
All we truly have are a few moments. A handful of instants on which we build relationships, ambitions, hopes, and dreams. A few points from which we shape every single day as they grow into our core values
A life without regrets is not a life without mistakes. It is a life in which we know that, in every moment — then and now — we did the best we could, even when it didn’t turn out the way we had hoped.
It is a big life. A life that demands a character that keeps growing. Because every time we choose living over the familiar “what if…”, we overcome ourselves — our fears, restraints, and insecurities.
Each of us would like to fall in love. But honestly, more than the idea of falling in love, we would like someone to fall in love with us. To choose us. To wake up with us in their thoughts and in their heart. To see who we are — even when we throw ourselves into the sea without a guarantee that we’ll always know how to swim back to shore or how many seconds finding our way may take.
Maybe it’s not about constantly falling in love with people. Maybe what matters more is falling in love with life, again and again. With imperfection. With uncertainty. With ourselves as we try.
Because maybe, within those five seconds, lies an entire lifetime.
Image by Dragana Jovanovic
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