A Change in Gravity

There are times in life when the air itself seems heavier, when every step feels like you’re walking under a red sun. Each movement drains you. Each task weighs on you. You find yourself straining, not because the work itself is impossible, but because the gravity is wrong. It holds you down. It pulls at you until even the smallest actions feel monumental.

And then, without warning, the light changes. You wake to a yellow sun. The air is different, lighter. You take a step and discover a gravity that lets you rise. The force that once held you so tightly no longer defines you. For the first time in a long time, you feel like you could fly.

That is the closest image I can find for the shift I’ve been experiencing. It is not that the world around me has changed overnight. It is that my perspective has changed. A decades-old fog has lifted, and I am seeing things differently, and in that new light, possibilities open up.

Choosing What Matters

When the weight lifts, you realize how much of your life has been spent serving burdens that didn’t belong to you. Old expectations. Worn-out obligations. Tasks that kept you moving but didn’t keep you alive. Under the red sun, they felt inevitable, even necessary. Under the yellow sun, they reveal themselves as optional.

That’s when the real choice begins. Freedom is not just the absence of weight; it is the opportunity to devote yourself to what matters most. For me, that means turning toward the projects and communities that reflect truth, justice, and the open source way — comic book pun fully intended. These are the things that last, the things that build, things that the mind, in time, can accomplish. These are the things that feed the inner fire.

A Hello World Moment

In programming, there’s a tradition: the first program you write in a new language is almost always “hello world.” It is simple, but it announces a beginning. It says: here is the first spark of something that will grow.

This moment feels like my own “hello world.” Not the end of a story, but the start of one. A chance to return to the work that gives life, the work that makes sense of who I am, the work that reflects the fire rather than the distortion of the glass.

The Responsibility of Lightness

Of course, freedom is not without weight. When you discover you can fly, you also discover the responsibility of flight. What you do with that lift matters. How you use that new air matters. You cannot squander it; you must steward it.

That sense of responsibility has settled on me strongly. The freedom to choose my path is also the call to choose wisely. To use this time not to drift but to build. To create things that endure. To share the fire in ways that encourage others.

For You, Too

This is not just about me. Maybe you are living under your own red sun right now. Maybe you feel the drag of expectations that aren’t yours, the weight of obligations that no longer fit. Maybe your mirror shows you as old, or incapable, or too tired, or too trapped in the machinery of survival to ever break free.

But that reflection isn’t the truth. It’s the distortion of a warped glass. Beneath it is the inner fire. That is who you really are, and that is what you must cling to, develop, and share.

The shift can come. Sometimes slowly, sometimes suddenly. One day the gravity changes, and you realize the strength was always there, waiting for the right light.

The Invitation

I don’t know what the shift will look like for you. Maybe it will be a quiet decision to release an old burden. Maybe it will be the first steps into a long-deferred passion. Maybe it will be as simple as a morning where, for the first time in years, you wake rested and know that today can be different.

But when it comes, recognize it for what it is: a change in gravity. A pivot from the star that binds you to one that gives you hope and strength. A chance to rise.

My encouragement is this: don’t be afraid of the responsibility that comes with freedom. Don’t shy away from the lift. The world needs the fire in you — the unwarped, unbent truth of who you are when you stop staring into the dark mirror and begin walking toward the flame.

That is how we keep going. That is how we create rare value. That is how, together, we learn to fly.