Extreme emotions

Hot tears roll from the sides of my eyes and down my plumped cheeks, which ache from smiling and I squeeze them with my hand to stop. It occurs to me how close happiness and sadness are. So closely knitted together. Such thin line, a thread-like divide that in the midst of emotions, it trembles, blurring the territory of exact opposites. The moment is minute, like the thin thread of a spider's web that quivers under a raindrop. Here in my moment of unstoppable cheek and stomach aching laughter, as my body rolls around, my stomach clenched, all the muscles taut, my body jumps about, is racked by emotion and therefore steps ever so slightly over the mark, and into sadness. Tears of sadness gush down my cheeks as my stomach continues to shake and ache with happiness.

How quickly a moment of love was snapped away to a moment of hate. One comment to steal it all away. Of how love and war stand upon the very same foundation. How in the darkest moments, my most fearful times, when faced, became my bravest. When feeling at your weakest, you end up showing more strength, when at your lowest are suddenly lifted higher than you've ever been.

They all border one another, those opposites, and how quickly we can be altered. Despair can be altered by one simple smile offered by a stranger; confidence can become fear by the arrival of one uneasy presence; a waver on a balance beam can turn excitement into pain, in an instant. Everything is on the verge, always brimming the surface, a slight shake, a tremble sends things toppling. How similar emotions are.

How quickly such comfort with someone can shift to awkwardness. How in the very second you reach a dead end, moments when you are convinced you know exactly where you are going are altered. A realization in less than a second. A flicker and the light becomes pitch black.

I continue to stare at the ceiling, feeling lost again when only moments ago I'd been found. My answers of only minutes ago are again transformed into questions.

A veil hangs between the two opposites, a mere slip of a thing that is transparent to warn us or comfort us. You hate now but look through this veil and see possibility of love; you are sad now but look through to the other side and see happiness. Absolute composure to a complete mess- it happens so quickly, all in the blink of an eye.

Thanks for the memories 
-Cecelia Ahern