From under the blue skies
It is the small moments that are the big moments.
A moment of silence in the sun.
Blue waters of the sea that meet the blue sky.
Looking back and realizing that despite EVERYTHING, I'm still here.
Here.
Breathing, smiling, laughing, able to love and reminisce with a calm, happy heart.
Even if some people leave our lives or leave this world behind entirely, they never are completely gone – they are a part of us forever. Not just in our memories, but in who we became simply by meeting them. I know you already have a specific person in mind, reading these lines – can you recognize them in you? If you look closely, I am sure you can.
It can be in the most subtle things. The way you sigh with content, how you fold your hands when you sit and wait or how you fold your laundry, or maybe the words you unconsciously took over from them that now became your own habits. It can be an affinity to a particular type of beauty or art. The things that make you laugh and the things that scare you, now that they have left.
People rub off on us in ways we often don't see until we gain a certain distance. It is one of the most human things in life I know. How we complete each other, create each other, how we can become each other's mirrors or shadows to be faced.
Every interaction we have with others shapes us. Each and every one. It can be very nuanced, making us feel like it happens rather rarely. Not every interaction we have feels life-changing, right? Sometimes – or maybe most of the time – it just adds to what we already 'know.' And that's only natural. We tend to like and choose people we consider smart, which - more often than not - means we prefer people whose views and opinions are similar to ours. In my experience, very few people long for being proven wrong. Our worldviews are our safety net, our lifebuoy in a world that sometimes can be difficult to navigate. It is only human to keep choosing what feels safe.
And then... there is the other kind of encounter. Don't let the word fool you – in this context, 'an encounter' in is not always a hello. It can equally well be a goodbye. This is the kind that makes you question everything you ever knew, even things you held onto for your dear life. It breaks you apart, only to allow you to recreate yourself anew, into the new person you needed to become.
All the people we meet can reinforce what we already hold true, or make us question everything, or simply nudge us into the direction of something new. Is one better than the other? I'll leave that up to you to decide.
Now. When it comes to who you allow to become a part of you: be fussy about that, by all means! Choose your tribe carefully. Handpick them one by one. And once you do, oh please, love them hard. Not only because you chose them – love them, because they are who you are, and love yourself, because you are all of them too.
