There is always fear before the fall. Fear of the unknown, potential failure, and disappointment. There is fear in the pain, the emotional highs and lows, the commitment. There is always fear before the fall.
But fear, like every negative emotion, creates the optimal contrast needed in order for us to see beauty as beauty, light as light, and love as love. Without the contrast, without fear, we would not know love. Without the fall, love would not stand out, it would just be another brightly colored stroke on the canvas of other brightly colored strokes. Blending in.
Falling in love with anything or anyone is the paradoxical dance that is as kismet as the stars that pop in the night sky, the single wildflower swaying in a field of weeds, and the cool breeze that blows on a hot summer day. Every moment leading up to it, less bright and picturesque, only emphasizes the beauty of the fall.
But to jump into a fall requires trust. And trust is built on courage and strength and a semblance of blind naivety that allows you to take a half-hazard fall into an unknown future and truly unguard yourself. Drop the shields and the armor and just fall. Fall without seeing the ground. Embrace the wind whipping through your hair, the adrenaline pulsing through your veins, and the deep intensity of everything around you.
To fall is to stop time. To make seconds go slower and to create each moment as a deeply moving experience in itself. Even the simple ones, the normal. To fall is to see the extraordinary in the ordinary at every point in time. To truly embody the person you are in the world and the surrealness that is all around you. That has always been all around you. That just became visible when your senses heightened and you became hyperaware of the world and fully in tune to the exact moment you were in.
This is what falling is. Falling is to let fear open your eyes to fully digesting the objective reality around you and seeing that objective reality for what it truly is—a real-world, rose-colored glasses point of view. Taking in the facts, choosing to see the glossy, and deciding to run with gratitude for it all.
Falling in love with anything or anyone is magical, because it is in that moment of contrast that the glossy reality becomes clear, our experience intensifies, and we learn that we can see the beauty of every situation in every moment whenever we so choose.
There is always fear before the fall, and that fear awakens us to the most beautiful thing of all.