Time In a Bottle

A little over five months since the Pandemic changed our world. 
Five months.
FIVE months. 
Wait.... ONLY five months!? 
How could it be? So much has happened and so much has....NOT happened.
Side note: Is that what I'll tell myself in my last days also?

When we are children, time is expansive and limitless.
A year is a lifetime in the life of a six year old. 
Have I grown to finally be a child again!? Because the last five months feel like a DECADE. 

Jim Croce sings about what he would do if he could put 'time in a bottle' and here I am on a Monday evening, wondering 'what if'? What is the pandemic didn't happen - what would the course of my life have been like in the last five months? In what ways richer? In what ways poorer? In what ways would I have grown? Or would I have grown at all?

Would I have started a daily blog? I doubt it. Would I have finally found a consistent rhythm for my meditation practice? Probably not. Would I have upgraded my Voice Over career and built a home studio? Definitely not as fast as I did this year. Would I have put self-care at the forefront of my life without shame or guilt over it? Highly doubt it. Would I have learned to ride the bike? Would I have baked Banana bread and made homemade pasta? Would I have attempted to sew a face mask? Would I have become the puzzle master I always knew I was born to be? 

These last five months sometimes feel like they have TAKEN so much. Taken life as we knew it. Taken Livelihood. Taken opportunities. And sadly... also taken lives. 
But to the optimistic ones among us, there was also so much that was GAINED.

What have you done with your time in a bottle?