Time slips by
Mostly unnoticed
Gazing into the fog
We never see clearly
Rarely seeing the world as it is
Others as they are
Ourselves for who/ what we’ve become
See into our true hearts – sometimes dark
Read our own spirits correctly
We comfort ourselves
Saying we did not see
Because we were busy, tired
This story consoles us
Assuages our guilts
Soothes our conscience
But all is choice
A privilege and a choice
to walk through life
Unencumbered
Not seeing injustices and imbalances
Built into the foundations of our world
Not listening well enough
To separate the clamor of rhetoric,
From the ring of truth
Numbing ourselves to pain and fear
As it consumes our world
And slowly eats away at us
The pandemic has given us respite
Downtime,
A do-over
A reset,
A time out
When we rise from this fog
When we have buried our dead
When we have wiped dirt and tears from our eyes
Will we then be able to see
Or hear
Or feel
Fully alive and aware
To review and to re-learn
To consider
What binds us
To each other
To earth
Or what holds us back
Or keeps us apart
Will we have squandered
Our time in the fog?
Will our thoughts dissolve
Into the dust of old regrets?
Will we remain distracted
By oratory hyperbole
Or can we finally embrace
Each other
Embrace the lessons
Time and Nature offer
Or let the teachings embrace us
Or give them a pass
What will be different
On the other side
of this mystifying fog
of obfuscation
Disease
Depression
Disorder
Can we learn
To be present
And act accordingly
What will change
What will be different in the After
Once the fog has lifted
You decide
© Copyright 2020 Martina Green McGowan, MD
Photo by Slava Stupachenko on Unsplash
