Shrinking Violet?

Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in something, whisked away by something, mesmerized by something. Sometimes it's a pair of all too expensive high heels. As you gaze longingly into the mirror, the lady next to you stops shopping to admire and praise the perfect match of human and shoe, you become entranced and the next thing you know, your credit card is debited an unspeakable amount. Sometimes it is the snow falling on the trees, dancing on it's way down, softening the sounds of life, dusting your eyelashes, you get lost in it. Other times it is a feeling, an emotion long lost. It takes you over, engulfs your system slowly and quietly. Suddenly you wake up and think, where have I been?

There are days, we all have them, where we just aren't "ourselves". Sometimes it's just a passing mood, sometimes it's caused by stress, sometimes by outside events, and sometimes it can come from getting lost, getting lost in that emotion that has quietly overtaken our souls. A once cartwheeling, outspoken girl becomes a more subdued, calculated person. They are but one in the same, yet the former version embodied the true soul of the person. How does this happen? How can we get so lost, become a shrinking violet in front of our own eyes, unable to recognize it until something has passed? It often isn't until doing a cartwheel again that that girl remembers what it feels like, hands on the pavement, feet flying overhead, and thinks...it's been far too long since I've done one of those.