COVID Hasn't Frozen Time

I looked up today after having my head 'down'... (for 7 months!!!) ...quietly escaping into the natural wilderness, or staring at my computer screen and living on Zoom, Google Meets, Skype, and FaceTime.  Inside my mind the word has felt halted, like a really long snow day: an unexpected pause in time. 

Unfortunately, time doesn't actually pause.  When we put our heads down to focus, to hide ourselves, to survive, etc., time continues.  Life continues.  We may pause, but the rest of the universe is still in motion.  Even our atoms are ageing (or, rather, decaying).  

It's strange, though, to think about HOW the world is changing around us when we really can't see it moving.  After COVID, things can't go back to 'normal' because life doesn't pause, and 'normal' only exists in the expected.  We have no way to prepare our minds for all the changes that will have taken place in these 7 or 10 or 14 months we live in isolation.  

Marriages will happen, children will be born, friends will meet and fall in love, people will lose those they love, others will gain a new love, tears and laughter and fears and joys will be felt...and we may miss the entire story except the last few words, or the social media post 'review.'

It is not bad that the world keeps moving.  It is not bad to sit in silence or to hide for a period of time.  It is not wrong to limit our social circles or not know everything that is happening in the world of social media.  

What is broken, and sad, and worthy of fear is the freezing of ourselves within time: choosing NOT to move as time continues on: choosing to hide in what we used to know, where we used to fit, what we used to be... instead of what we can become.

It would be the biggest loss of all to stop moving, learning, growing and changing.  Essentially, time and life would start to pass us by...  AND, unfortunately, no one can pause time to wait for us to realize this.  

Time keeps moving with or without our movements following suit.


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