The Wind That Hits Your Face…

Every action creates a reaction. Every wind creates movement. Every small stone thrown into the lake becomes a celebration.

There are moments when a simple act of change triggers so many things at once that we don’t even have time to think whether they are good or not so good. But in some way, they are: movement.

A simple “no” opens so many blocked paths that I often wonder why I didn’t do it sooner. And if it’s always this simple, what causes so many mental blocks? What creates the barriers that keep the wheel from turning, new things from happening, and old concepts from fading away? The solutions may be within everyone’s reach, but perhaps we need to go through more winding— and consequently more painful — paths. Maybe that’s how we learn to truly value the final achievement.

There is no real joy in what is simply handed to us without effort, persistence, or sweat… at least, that’s how I see it. Feeling the sweet pleasure of being free and making our own choices is far more meaningful when we’ve known the opposite. So, do we need to suffer to understand pleasure? I don’t know. I only know that when we find the way out at the end of the tunnel, everything becomes clearer and more obvious — and that feeling of freedom we experience is as intense as the wind hitting our face, whether on a motorcycle, a bicycle, or even a simple bus.

Original text from my former blog (in Portuguese) Frenéticas SA published in 2007.

Tetris taught me that when you try to fit in you'll disappear

Oh, dear Tetris—what a wise message you’ve taught us."Fitting in" seems harmless, but it can creep into even the most self-aware and well-therapized minds.

It’s not just about the classic story of parents who expected a different career or life path from you. It’s about trying to fit into someone else’s idea of a perfect partner. It’s forcing yourself to enjoy wine-and-paint nights with friends when you’d rather be anywhere else. It’s blending into a job that demands you be more aggressive when that’s just not who you are.

Fitting in—when it goes against who you really are—sucks.It sucks bad.

Because when you try too hard to fit in, you start to disappear.Just like in Tetris: the better the pieces fit, the faster they vanish. Poof. Gone.

But here’s the thing—fitting in is not the same as being flexible or open-minded. Exploring new ideas, growing, shifting—that’s all beautiful. But fitting in at the expense of yourself? That’s a slow erasure of your identity.

Every time you shrink yourself to match someone else’s expectations, you move further away from your truth—your dreams, your purpose.

Each of us came to this planet with a reason to be here. It might take a lifetime to find that reason—but the more you disappear, the less chance the world has to experience the real you.

And you matter. Your story matters. So please… don’t vanish.