Falling, Falling

"It amazes me how easy it is for things to change, how easy it is to start off down the same road you always take and wind up somewhere new. Just one false step, one pause, one detour, and you end up with new friends or a bad reputation or a breakup. It's never occured to me before; I've never been able to see it. And it makes me feel, weirdly, like maybe all of these different possibilities exist at the same time, like each moment we live has a thousand other moments layed underneath it that look different." I sometimes think about it, too. Like for some weird reason, a move I make suddenly feels wrong and I am left going through a list of what-ifs. That maybe options b or c might have made things better but I wasn't aware of them beforehand. Although when I think about it, the path I took was laid out perfectly for a reason, for me to discover a new thing, experience something I've never had before, to get answers, to get more clues, or maybe, to surprise me. A step or a misstep, it all happens for a reason. It's a puzzle, and the decisions we make completes it, locking each piece like a glove to build a clear, sharp picture. Life is a web and we are all interconnected. A single touch, breath, or gaze can absolutely turn another person's world into a makeshift angle. We may never know about it, nor the effect it elicited, and oftentimes we find ourselves reflecting, wondering. Have I been selfish? Was I able to show empathy? I just put down the first book I've read this year, Before I Fall. I find it surprisingly special. It's real and honest, and I won't say anything more because I'm not trying to do a review here. It's nice and heartwarming, one that will make you feel good towards the end, albeit having an ambiguous ending. I'm not a fan of open-ended stories because I hate being preoccupied by thoughts of possible endings and alternate endings, but this one left a smile on my face and gave me a clearer view on things. It's that kind of a good read. One worthy of a spot in your TBR list. :) "It occurs to me that maybe it's not so complicated at all. Most of the time - 99 percent of the time - you just don't know how and why the threads are looped together and that's okay. Do a good thing and something bad happens. Do a bad thing and something good happens. Do nothing and everything explodes. And very, very rarely - by some miracle of chance and coincidence, butterflies beating their wings just so and all the threads hanging together for a minute - you get the chance to do the right thing."