We live in a world that reveres the mantra of “more.” More work, more achievements, more distractions to fill the gaping maw of existence. Our culture fetishizes busyness, turning it into a badge of honor and a blunt instrument of self-worth. But what if there’s a way to slip through the cracks of all that chaos? What if we could defy the ceaseless churn of modern life—not with resistance, but with surrender?

Enter fjaka, a Croatian word that feels less like a concept and more like a state of transcendence. I learned the word from Saskia Neil, a guest on Fifty Words for Snow, the podcast I cohost with Emily Garcés, where we explore words without an English equivalent. Fjaka has haunted me like a benevolent specter ever since. It isn’t laziness; it’s radical permission—the deliberate choice to unshackle yourself from the relentless “go, go, go” that keeps us chained to the wheel of perpetual doing.

Fjaka is that rare, glorious state where you simply let go. Imagine........

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