The Beauty of Strangers

In the vast universe and the infinity of time, there is one constant: the majority of our lives will be spent by ourselves. It is only during that loneliness that we are indeed ourselves. Our views formed as the sum of our anxieties, insecurities, fears, hopes, and dreams.

Our lives are nothing but moments when placed within this cosmic perspective. Only when we come together with others and succeed in burying the individualism that plagues us all do we create moments that make the most difference in our lives. They provide opportunities to grow, recalibrate, and be seen in a world where it is easy to feel like you don’t genuinely exist.

The beauty of strangers is that they allow us to trust our emotional experiences to reveal facts about the world in the same way we charge our sensory experiences. Despite the vastness of the universe and the infinity of time, our lives can still intersect with theirs in ways that create unbridled joy. The feelings and instantaneous connection that manifest in that window of time together are unadulterated.

By the very nature of time, all of those moments and feelings are ephemeral. However, the strangers we share them with live within us as memories. Immutable even against the never-ending march of time. When it has become clear one of these moments has reached its climax, we must accept the end for what it is. To do otherwise would be a futile and selfish act to extend the lifespan of something after it has run its course. One has to be willing to admit that all things have their end. The ability to not just recognize but welcome when a moment in your life is transitioning to being a memory gives you the ability to truly relish your time with others before that point.

Not every stranger you form a connection with will stay in your life forever. In fact, many will be gone within the blink of an eye. Even those you once called friends and partners will revert back to being strangers as time pushes the memory of them further from who they are today. New moments will continue to reshape them until they are different from the person you once knew. That is why it is essential to remember the end of something doesn’t have to be filled with regret, anger, or negativity. We have experiences and memories that serve a purpose. Strangers come and go, but they leave with us the entirety of who they were in that moment we shared with them and everything that made it beautiful.

Enjoy things for what they are rather than what you believe they can be. Anything beyond our own conscious experiences requires a leap of faith.