Nothing But Time

Time.  

It seems like time is all any of us have right now.  The days just roll along, each one resembling the previous.  

Thinking about time always brings me back to them–the ones serving time.

Three prisoners from the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women.  I only met them once–years ago–but I think of them often. 

The first woman was in her fifties and had no teeth. In prison for murdering her husband.  I listened to her story about how an abusive relationship had changed the path of her life.  She talked of drugs and life choices; about regret and longing for courage; and about what life was like for her in prison.  It was the same every day–waking up, eating, work, and going to bed. Repeat.

The second woman was in her forties.  Also in prison for murdering her abusive husband–with a baseball bat.  She also talked of bad choices, emotional decisions, and of the courage she wished she had had to walk away.  

The third woman was young–in her twenties.  As a seventeen year old, she and a group of friends robbed someone.  Before she knew what was happening, there was an altercation. She fired a shot.  It wasn’t her gun–she had never even shot a gun. And there she was, guilty of an adult crime.  A life altered at just seventeen.  

The group I was with, we all felt the heaviness in the room as they spoke of a life they thought would never be for them.  And their message of making good choices filled the quiet.  

I was able to join the three women and the sheriffs for lunch.  We ate. We laughed. I remember how much they enjoyed the beverages with ice, as they remarked that they were not allowed to have ice in prison.  Ice. The heaviness was still there. 

We all sat together that day, but the circumstances of our lives and our own choices separated us.

They left that day to return to their life in prison; and I returned to my life.  

I have thought of them throughout the years, and the day we sat together.   

I have wondered what it feels like to be them.  To have nothing ahead of you but time. 

But life has a way of coming full circle, it only takes time.  

Recently, I found myself sitting across from an employee at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women.  We sat in my office talking about children and school until the conversation shifted to her work with the prison.  I shared with her my time with the three women.  

Imagine my surprise when she was able to share updates on the women that still cross my mind. The woman in her fifties was still in prison, but had new teeth. The young one had been released and was involved in a program for women released from prison. 

Time had been kind to some, and not so much to others.  But it was good to hear about them.

So now, as we all sit and wait during this time of so much uncertainty, I find myself thinking of the three women.  And about the day we all sat together. And about time.  

Seems like yesterday, and yet it wasn’t. 

The author Alice Walker said, “Time moves slowly but passes quickly.”  

How very true. 
For those women. 
For all of us.  

While our differences remain, we are all alike in some ways.  Maybe even in most ways.  

We all have nothing ahead of us but time.