It seemed so simple, didn’t it?
You had a dream when you were little and the only plan was to follow it. It was going to come true eventually because in stories… dreams always do. Even for the people who at first didn’t believe they could, in the stories, in the end, they are convinced otherwise.
It was simple. Just trust. A little bit of magic and fairy dust and voilà! Happily ever after.
Granted by grace, without a lot of effort though with suffering involved for all those characters suffer first before things get better. And the plan was always the same, be a good person, keep believing, follow your dreams, be true to your heart.
Same thing with love. He or she will arrive, someday out of the blue. You’ll get your very own meet-cute. One day, when you’re ready, he’ll bump into you and he’ll spill something on your shirt. He’ll say sorry, you’ll be pissed but your eyes will lock, and then… just like that. You fall in love. Magic. (Hope your meet-cute is a little bit more original than that).
And then the story follows, some ups and downs, tears and misunderstandings that cause pain but the ending is always the same… happily ever after. So we were told.
And then you start growing up and realize that life lasts longer than the movie or the story and that the “happily ever after” is, in reality, a “happily just for now“… because in a moment, in the blink of an eye, everything changes. You get fired, or you have to leave things or people behind, the business idea fails, they hurt you, your health declines, he dies, or she leaves you. Or it simply goes slower, downhill until it crashes and burns.
You feel it’s the end. It must be. How much pain can it take to die? Pain doesn’t kill you though.
You keep on living, even though at first, it’s hardly living. Then slowly you start to glow again, your first rebirth. Welcome to the world. Now you are more grown-up than before, now you are wiser, and kinder, hopefully, if you’ve not let your first death wilt your heart.
A new start, a new dream. This time you know better. But even so, not everything is under your control. You have to learn to trust… again. You’re scared, so scared that maybe you mess up. Let’s hope is not too bad and that you can fix it. If not, then make sure you don’t let fear stop you next time, because there is always a next time, if you let it.
The next time comes around and you’re not ready. But in life, we hardly are. You learn on the go. And this time you are prepared to trust. A leap of faith. What if you fall and crash? Well, yeah, that’s a possibility. But hey, you’ve fallen and died before… And here you are again!
Death, the metaphorical and physical kind, is an illusion anyway, so they say. And it’s coming, it’s certainly coming for you, for them, for this, for that, for everyone. So why not? We are all going there anyway. Why not try to make the road to Death more enjoyable, more daring?
So you decide to trust. Wholeheartedly.
Dear, brave soul, you did well in trusting. It became everything you’d hoped for and more. You’re happy now. Happy again. Happier than ever. And you think, this time, you’ll be happy forever… This time is for good. It has to be.
Then a little voice at the back of your mind is whispering to you: Remember, it’s all just for now.
It’s not a threat, it comes with love. It’s a snippet of wisdom from the depths of your soul. You know it’s right.
For a second, you feel the pain, the grief, the fear of losing what you’ve got, though it’s still here. But you know, it won’t always be. But then again, neither will you. It’s coming closer every day. So, why not…
You look around at all you hold dear with newfound love because you know it’s not for good. Tomorrow it could all be gone. Tomorrow it could all be different. There is only today, only this moment. And happily ever after was never to be “ever after”. It is only just for now. Tomorrow you might die again as you did before and after that, another rebirth will follow either in this life or the next. It’s a cycle, it’s a wave. It comes and goes. A breath in and a breath out. It all comes and goes.
So you look at them, you look at her, you look at him, you look at it, at the place, at the meal, at the scene, you listen to their voices, to the music, to the laughter… Really look at it all, really listen to it all, really take it in to imprint it in your heart, so at least there, it will live forever. And you give thanks, also to voice in your head because you realize that you’ve only taken this moment to truly love it all because you know it’s not going to last, and that makes it all the more precious.
It’s strange, this life. Maybe all those stories and all those movies were just parts of unfinished stories, like chapters that were never meant to stand for the whole book. Maybe all those stories keep evolving after you’ve reached The End. Maybe all those characters keep on living in their imprint world. Maybe they lose their happiness, maybe they lose each other, maybe their dreams do fail after all. Maybe they die, and then need to be born again, as you’ve done before.
The good news is that you’re not alone. You realize that we are all here doing the same, growing older, growing wiser only because we realize how little we truly understand, and that’s how our mind widens to allow a little bit more light in every time.
Life will change again, maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day, but it doesn’t matter. Tomorrow hasn’t come, and you still have now. You love it, embrace it and you give thanks. Because no matter what happens tomorrow, in your heart you will always have now.
The Wandering Writer 