Stress. The eternal problem. Stress everywhere, for anything, for small and big problems, stress always. It’s like there is nothing else to do other than getting stressed, each day a little bit more than the previous. Why do we stress? Why should we? Is it because we care? Because we invest? Because we believe? Because we hope? Is stress the indication of caring, and in its duality, is the lack of stress the indication of not caring?
I don’t know. How could I? Why should I? Of course, I don’t know. I am too caught up in getting stressed. That’s all I have time to do. Gotta manage my stress. And what do I do in my free time? Well, of course, share my stress with other people while they share theirs with me! What else!?
And then something happens. Something “clicks” inside and things suddenly change. There are things beyond the stress that is taking up all your attention. There is more to life. There is more to you, perhaps even more to me. Suddenly, there is time for coffee. There is time to enjoy a nice meal. There is time to see friends. There is time to make friends.
Perhaps this is the thing that happens. Perhaps people happen. Out of the blue, a new face comes along, a new person, a new character, and there’s a new ingredient in the soup. The soup becomes a little spicier, or sometimes it sweetens, it might get a little more flavorful, or it just needed some salt. Perhaps sometimes it just needs to be stirred a little bit., how can you get a good soup without a little stir every now and then?
It is nice to meet people. It is magic to make friends out of new people. People who are strangers, and you get to know a little by little, and they’re not strangers anymore. You share sounds, tastes, experiences, moments, memories. And yes, you share your stress. I dare to claim that this is perhaps the most effective stress relief. I have never tried drugs, of course, but, you know. Making friends also seems to help realize that there’s more to life and not everything is as grim as it looks.
The most surprising part is when and how these people appear. When it happens, and the way in which it happens, is a constant affirmation that chance does not exist. How probable it is to meet someone who can help you so much without them even knowing it, by chance? I have always been bad with probabilities, but I don’t think it’s too far from a really small ε > 0.
Then, these people have an impact on the soup that is incredible. It’s like those times when you taste a soup and you think, there’s something missing. Then you add that something and stir a little bit, and the soup just comes together. All the ingredients that were already there work better together and all the tasty deliciousness comes out. I get the feeling it’s the same with people. You have your friends, you know them, you love them, things are good. But someone new comes along, you do something new, or perhaps something old that you haven’t done in a long time, and things are even better. And this new person, that new ingredient, is the stirring force that brings you out of your slumber and back into life itself.
It’s good to meet people. It’s good to make friends. It’s good to have friends. It’s good to not be alone in a world of constant stress, to have someone to help you shake it off, even if they don’t know that they’re doing it. It is good to stop focusing on negative things, and finally get a glimpse of that proverbial silver lining.
It is good to feel the stress seep away. And if you can make a friend or two along the way… well, the universe is smiling at you.
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