Velocity

The period when everything was moving at once and you were running to keep up with your own life.

When you were making decisions faster than you could process them, and most of them held.

The acceleration that came from finally removing whatever had been slowing you down.

A season of productivity that surprised you with its own momentum.

The relationship that moved from introduction to intimacy faster than felt entirely safe.

When opportunity arrived in clusters and required you to act before you were ready.

The period of your career when you were learning faster than you could use what you knew.

The speed of a crisis — how fast everything changed, and how you moved through it.

When you were changing faster than the people around you could track, and the loneliness of that.

The rate at which a particular form of grief moved through you, faster or slower than expected.

How quickly a situation that had seemed stable came apart.

The momentum of a creative project that carried you beyond where you had planned to go.

When a conversation moved from surface to depth so quickly that you both noticed it.

The year that passed in what felt like a month, and what you understood about time afterward.

The accumulation of small changes that created a large transformation almost without your noticing.

How fast the children grew, or the parents aged, or the body changed.

The sudden speed of something you had been moving toward slowly for years.

When the slowness of a situation finally broke and everything rushed to resolve.

How quickly you adapted to something you were certain you could not adapt to.

The moment you realized you were no longer the same person who had started the journey.