It’s been like waking up from a dream

Or stepping out of a fog

How did I get here

 

How could this much time have possibly passed

Wasn’t it just yesterday I was planning my life

Imagining all the things I would do

 

I thought twenty years was a lifetime away

But it went in a blink

In a blur it raced by

 

Those first years were filled with dreams

The days felt long and full of possibility

But they were soon replaced with responsibility

 

There I was doing all the things

Running, caring, working, comparing

Consumed with what needed to be done

 

Somewhere along the way I set myself aside

I always meant to come back for her

But there was never any time

 

Sometimes I would see her as I went running by

But my arms were too full

Things too important, too urgent, too wonderful to set down

 

Eventually I forgot where I left her

She was like a distant memory

All but forgotten

 

Then one day things slowed down

I had time to look

And there she was!

 

Under a pile of life.

I picked her up and dusted her off

An old familiarity embraced me

 

It’s me! I’m still here!

I try to fit her back on

But she’s too small

 

I tug and I pull

but she’s too constricting

Too narrow

 

I’ve grown

Blossomed in ways I didn’t realize

I can’t shrink back to who I was

 

I carefully set her down

There are still so many wonderful parts

Fragments of myself I had forgotten

 

So we work together

She gives me back the pieces I can still use

And we leave the rest for others to find

 

Grateful, I carry on

More myself

But even better