Love for Life
For years, I retreated into computers, video games, and predictable indoor routines. After my parents divorced and my grandfather passed away, detaching from the outside world felt safer than feeling vulnerable. But detachment comes at a devastating cost: when you look down to stay safe, you stop noticing the everyday wonder around you. Loving life is not about chasing extreme adrenaline; it is the courage to look up, step outside, and engage directly with the living world.
Adventure does not require booking expensive flights to foreign countries. Adventure is a quality of attention. It is the willingness to look closely at a tree in your local park, to taste your food with presence, to feel the rain on your skin, and to explore an unfamiliar street in your own city.
Erik Thor, Why I Care
Stepping Out of the Simulator
The boy looking up at the sky
When I was fifteen, two Jehovah’s Witnesses knocked on my door while I was gaming. They pointed up and asked if the world wasn’t too beautiful to have been created by chance. I looked at the clouds and the apple tree in the yard. “I think it is beautiful precisely because it happened by chance,” I replied. That afternoon, I realized the real world was far richer than any virtual quest.
The myth of the comfort zone
We treat the boundary of our comfort zone like a minefield. In my twenties, I told myself I was too sensitive for crowds, noise, and travel. But the more you avoid discomfort, the smaller your life becomes. You do not grow stronger in a sealed greenhouse; you grow resilient by engaging with the weather.
Venice Alleys and the Unscripted Road
In my twenties, a friend called me out at a party: “You always leave early. You don’t know how to have fun anymore.”
Defensive, I blurted out that I was planning an interrail trip across Europe. She immediately invited herself along. She did not believe in plans: she wanted us to decide where to go each morning when we woke up. The lack of a plan made me deeply anxious.
In Venice, we arrived after an exhausting train ride over the Alps with no hotel booked. We wandered narrow, dark alleys for hours with a confusing paper map, terrified of being stranded. But we found a small room, fell asleep at two in the morning, and woke up to golden sunlight reflecting across the canals. In Paris, we walked four hours through the night to reach the Eiffel Tower.
Those moments were physically uncomfortable, but they taught me something lasting: I did not need to control every single variable to be safe. I could handle being lost, tired, or confused, and still find my way through.
“Planning away all uncertainty also plans away all adventure. Getting through the awkward, uncomfortable parts is precisely what gives the experience meaning.”
Micro-test quiz with 10 questions
Love For Life Match
Check off statements above to calculate your match score.
Practical Living & Adventure Worksheet
Identify the comfortable routines that have kept your world small, and design small, unscripted moments of wonder in your everyday environment.
Adventure Development Guide
Reflection & Practice
Reclaiming Wonder
What comfortable routines are you using to protect yourself from discomfort right now? What is the smallest unscripted step you could take today—taking a new route home, leaving your phone in another room, or noticing a tree in the park—to step back into your life?
Continue Your Journey
Take the Eight Forms of Love Test
See how your love for life compares with your care for work, ideas, and other people across 48 reflective questions.
Explore the Book: Why I Care
Read the full story of growing up in northern Sweden, dancing in the rain, and learning to love the living world.
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