When the Floor Falls Out From Under You

Stability is nice. Sometimes, you feel assured. Full of conviction. Grounded. Literally. You feel the ground underneath your feet and the weight of your body sinking into the earth. You’re physically here.

But occasionally, you move to place your foot down and nothing rises up to meet it. You expect your feet to be cushioned against familiar soil and yet it is not. Have you ever thought that a staircase ended, only for there to be one final stair left accounted for? That feeling where your stomach drops. You miscalculated. Things actually aren’t as they seem.

Sometimes, you think you’re standing on solid ground. You know where you are and where you’re heading. But then, suddenly, something pulls the floor out from underneath you. You’re in free-fall.

These moments are rare, scary, and vitally important. What if we’re wrong about everything? What if our steadfast truths are simply figments of our imagination? Well, they might be. Cherish these moments. They give you immense personal insight.

The floor of security you stand on is one that you personally built. It could be thin and patchy, waiting to crack, with an abyss below. You just don’t know it yet. Eventually though, you’ll land. The floor you land on may be unfamiliar—thicker perhaps, made from a different material—and stability will return again. But everything can always come crashing down again in the blinking of an eye.

From time to time, inspect the stability of the assumptions you stand on. Are they truly rock-solid? Or, are you just one small crack away from having everything crumble beneath you? Sometimes, you need to experience that helpless feeling to find out.