Me, My Heart, and I

by Melinda Gallo

The Gift of Time

Monday, April 27, 2020

After two weeks* of lockdown in Italy, I feel a great sense of tranquility. Initially, I only saw how disrupted my life was and how I couldn’t do what I did before. Over time, I not only adapted to the lockdown, but I began to revel in it.Me, My Heart, and I :: The Gift of Time

As time stretched out before me, I saw how I could better manage it. I now see this lockdown as a unique opportunity for us to take a break from life. To jump off the merry-go-round of life, stand on solid ground, get our bearings, and ponder how our lives were and how we’d like our lives to be.

We used to fill up our time with tasks to do, people to see, places to go, and things to possess. Now that our outside life is restricted, if not eliminated completely, we must focus on what is important to us, like food, shelter, our loved ones, and our health).

In the past, we duplicated yesterday and made it today. We did the same things every day, said the same things every day, and found stability in the monotony of our lives.

While we’re in quarantine, we can now reassess our current lives to create a better life for ourselves today. In the past, we looked around so much at the world around us that we lost our way. We lost our way by chasing dreams we thought would make us happy. We lost our way by believing that happiness was a place where no problems exist. We lost our way by believing that we could achieve happiness one day, but not today.

Instead of us filling up our time, we can let time fill us up with its wisdom. When we are still, we can hear our heart’s whispers. We can find out who we truly are, what is important for us, what we desire for ourselves, what we want to achieve, and how we want to live our precious life.

Now is the time to nurture our hearts, embrace the beauty and love all around us, and appreciate everything and everyone in our lives. Every moment is a gift we can embrace, dive into, experience more fully, enjoy, love, and appreciate.

May you take advantage of this gift of time to reflect, readjust, and regroup so you can rebirth yourself and live a life with a greater sense of fulfillment and joy.

*Previously published on March 27, 2020 on Medium.

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