The Joy of Free Falling

I've shared this experience before, with people having dance as a common interest-

The weather was so good this morning, that I felt like dancing and I fell at the first turn! Not the first time for me. I got a painful bruise; but somehow I feel like laughing everytime I fall, even if it hurts. May be it's because falling reminds me of a carefree childhood- learning to walk for the first time, riding a bicycle, playing. We've all had our fair share of bruises. And we'd proudly show those off to our friends, boasting of surviving some grand accident. Growing up, we encounter falls and risings, making mistakes and learning from those mistakes. Yes we cried, but next minute forgot it ever happened and never gave up.

But once we learn those elementary things and get used to the world around, slowly, we become cautious as we forget how falling feels-  Be it physical or metaphorical. And since the fear of a thing comes from not knowing it, we become more and more scared of it, and stop trying new things or taking risks in our lives.Worse, we learn to complain if we get bruises.

And slowly life becomes mundane. To fill that void we start filling it with stuff money could buy but don't really need and so we become materialistic.

Our society, our culture expects us to be graceful as a grown up. So no more climbing trees, or dancing in the streets, or shouting at the top of our lungs, or skipping the steps on the stairs and no more the joys of free falling. To experience these, we need to make special provisions, but it can't be at the spur of the moment. Whenever and wherever we want. We learn to practice restraint, be responsible, disciplined.

But do we really want to be a conformist to these norms or live our limited time on our own terms?

What would you choose, would you let go of those innocent impulses or would you choose to let go and experience that free fall?