About the time we chose uncertainty
ABOUT SERIES
It’s not easy to talk about happiness during a time of sadness. To cherish a time in life, that most would want forgotten.
As the second half of 2020 came, we watched paralleled lives being lived, judging and being judged by the decisions we made. We were either too scared or too careless, too free or not free at all, afraid of dying or afraid of living.
At a moment when choosing freedom was choosing uncertainty, many of us chose a freer version of life. We chose to leave the “safety” of our homes in search of a foreign reality and by doing so would become bonded to others that made the same choice, bypassing interests, cultures, and backgrounds. Above all, what we saw in each others eyes was the commitment to choose this life for ourselves.
Most of us found what we were looking for in the simplest of places, forgotten and remote places, maybe at times deemed undeveloped or uncivilized, now they provided a refuge from the constrains of a civilized environment. Our lives grew simpler as we fell to the rhythm of this new life, and while we still had our share of responsibilities, re-finding a sense of ease was always just a sunset or a kindred soul away.
Without noticing this simplicity gave us another type of freedom, the freedom to be ourselves, not who we needed to be, who we were asked to be or thought we should be. As the world we had built around us came crashing down, for a moment it felt like we were given a clean slate to re-build who we were, but with time we would come to realize that there was no point in building anything, being was enough. This would become the norm in places where just choosing to be there, was the one true value that matter.
We knew then we were living a special kind of life, a life not everyone dared to live, and maybe the thought of it added sweetness to the moment. We now know that we look back at this time with a different set eyes and feelings, and maybe the thought of it adds swetness to the memory.
As the established normal came back most people slowly parted ways leaving behind these realities. For some, the quest for the freedom and simplicity of that time is as alive today as it was back then, for some it became a fond memory of a chapter in life that they will always hold dear, and for others finding a way back to this reality still wonders through their minds.
Wherever we find ourselves today, a thought feels true: That if we were ever put in the same position, we would find each other chasing the same feeling, pursuing the same freedom.