It's About Time
When I was young, life was a ribbon, a shiny, satin ribbon. As I ran toward the rest of my life, that ribbon kept me from it. I ran and ran but the faster I ran towards all that I always wanted, whether it was a boyfriend, an education, a job, a husband, a home of my own and children to fill it, that ribbon simply bunched up ahead of me, the way shiny satin ribbons are wont to do. “Life” never seemed to happen.
Eventually these landmark achievements were captured, one by one. Yet life became even more of a race, one with no beginning or end. It seemed my days and nights were spent in a wheel, turning, turning, turning, while nothing at all ever truly got done. I would wash the dishes yet they were dirty again in an instant. I would make the beds but they never could manage to stay that way for even a day. Food was purchased, cooked and eaten in what seemed like the blink of an eye. Clothes, well, I’d rather not talk about the clothes.
Then came the dark years. In spite of all the running and racing, or perhaps because of them, everything was suddenly so hard. Life had become an obstacle course complete with dangerous challenges that often left me winded, injured, hurt---bleeding. There were days when I felt like an accident on the side of the road, everyone slowing down to see the spectacle of my life yet eventually driving on, leaving me to gradually bleed to death.
And I survived.
So, it was back to the obstacle course, then back to the ever-spinning wheel. However, something was different this time around. I was faster. I was stronger. I didn’t get winded so easily and I was leaping over obstacles with a single bound. One day I noticed that I was back on the ribbon but it was no longer bunching up in front of me, keeping my goals at bay.
Life had become a marathon and I was keeping pace.
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