Last week we looked at reaching for our future before its time; grabbing keys before we are able to use them. This week we will tackle the other thing that so many of us try to reach for: The Past.
Do we really want to go there? Sure, why not? Because! It is bound to get us into trouble. Very possibly, it could drop us into a well of despair or settle us onto a path of misery. Why is it that when we think of the past, we so often just think about all the bad things that happened to us, (especially when there are so many wonderful, uplifting, freeing, loving memories that we could draw on instead!!) or the things we are sorry we did, the decisions we made that turned out bad, or all the things we didn’t do and wish we had… Why do we revisit all the negative, damaging things? There is plenty that we could berate ourselves over – or our parents, or siblings, or exes, or…anyone who once walked our lives with us. But where does the wishing and berating get us? Absolutely nowhere - nowhere good.
It would be a little funny and assuredly wonderful to be able to say the only regret we have is all the spiders we killed; but that is unrealistic to say the least. Life is so much more complicated than killing spiders – or whatever our least favorite bug is. We have all had bad things happen or done to us, or things that we have done that we wish we could go back and change. Hindsight is great for learning purposes, but otherwise it is worthless. Because it tends to force us to wish the impossible or drop us into self-pity and both states of being make our pearls of wisdom less likely to be grasped.
So, what to do with hindsight? Learn from our mis-directions and mistakes as we move forward, recognize that trials have a purpose – to mature us, forgive the people who have hurt us, attempt to help the young people in our lives with the wisdom we've gained, and then LET IT GO. (Yes, I’m singing “Let It Go” from the movie "Frozen" in my head at this moment, lol, aren’t you? Music is powerful! Three little words… Okay, I typed them in capitals, so three large little words. {TANGENT ALERT!!!})
Back on track. We need to LET IT GO! Because if we keep our eyes in the rearview mirror, we’ll likely miss something wonderful or important going on around us – and possibly crash. Which will allow us even more fodder for the stink pile of the past.
Let's let it go, folks. Live in the present as much as possible. There is enough trouble each day without searching out what cannot be changed, and there is more health and energy to deal with what hits us as we are walking our present-day paths.
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