Sometimes someone lives in another city or even another country—and yet somehow remains incredibly close. You talk, take an interest in each other's lives, find time, make plans. And those hundreds of kilometers seem to be irrelevant.

And sometimes it's the exact opposite. You live in the same city, maybe twenty minutes apart, but you don't see each other for months. And then the familiar explanations begin: it's too far to travel, too much work, it doesn't work out, let's do it some other time. At some point, I start to think that the person has simply constructed a distance between you that doesn't actually exist.

I think when we really want to see someone, we somehow become very inventive. You can meet after work, have coffee before work, drop by for half an hour, go for an evening stroll. It's not necessary to arrange an all-day date with a red carpet and an orchestra. Sometimes a simple, "I want to see you. When are you free?" is enough.

And I like this much more than any discussion of distance. When someone doesn't explain why things aren't working out, but instead thinks about how to make them work.

That's probably why I'm now a little skeptical of the phrase "we're too far apart." Of course, there are real distances that can't simply be erased. But sometimes two people are only a few stops apart, yet it feels like a whole continent separates them.

And vice versa—sometimes two cities are hundreds of kilometers apart, yet somehow the person ends up next to you every day.

Perhaps distance isn't determined by a map, but by the desire to take a step closer. ❤️