It is not useful to live in the past. That said, the past is extremely useful when we bring it into the present. We give the past power over us when we see it as a set of forces that have led us irretrievably and inevitably to where we are, like a train we cannot get off of that has taken us from our birth and will take us unwillingly to our fate. But your past it is not a set of forces that constrain you. It is a set of stories, experiences, and tools that empower you. Today is a new day and nothing before need have hold over you. You are in control. Your past story is not etched in stone. Rather, it is like a set of snapshots. You are allowed to rearrange them, mix them up, enlarge some, reduce others, cut, paste, stretch, discard... in essence, create. It is YOUR collage, YOUR slideshow, and it tells exactly what you wish it to tell. You have full artistic and creative rights over your story and what it means. This is true both in terms of how you see yourself, and how others see you. In fact, it is even more than that. Your past is also a set of tools that empower you. It has given you a set of lessons that grant you in this moment extraordinary power. You cannot only take your story to create a slideshow, but it has all the psychological gears, springs, wires, and source code to build a grand spiritual machine, one that will allow you to face the challenges in your future, avoid the pitfalls that ensnared you in the past, and even to fly over others that you cannot now see or anticipate. Everything that has happened in your life has happened for a reason. Everything. The good, the bad, the ugly. I dont mean to say that all or even any of those things are right or just or fair or easy or painless. I dont mean to minimize suffering. I just believe that the power we have as humans is sufficient to overcome these things. Some people dont know that or cant see it. If I were in their shoes, I might not know it either. My tribulations have been smaller than those some others have faced. But I do know that in my own experience when I can look at my past as a source of wisdom and power rather than of pain and regret it changes in the blink of an eye from a liability into an asset. As everything happens for a reason, the past is also a treasure map and compass that will stop you hurtling toward fate and illuminate the path to your destiny. If you believe this, one day, when you are searching desperately for a solution to a dilemma, you may react differently to the random memory, story, or experience that comes to mind while you are searching. In that memory often lies the key to getting out of the prison you find yourself in, or unlocking the door to new treasures. Your story is your own book of scripture. Solving its mysteries, understanding the allegories, aphorisms, and parables therein, is as important to your journey as understanding those in the great inspired works of literature and revealed truth. Your own life is a testament and a revelation, for you, and for others as well. This is how the present changes the past. It can make what was the source of darkness and suffering and evil into the back story for a journey into joy, love, and light. It is the power of redemption, of time travel. Each of us carries it with us everywhere we go, in our own minds and hearts. Staring at the blank page before you Open up the dirty window Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find Reaching for something in the distance So close you can almost taste it Release your inhibitions Feel the rain on your skin No one else can feel it for you Only you can let it in No one else, no one else Can speak the words on your lips Drench yourself in words unspoken Live your life with arms wide open Today is where your book begins The rest is still unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield, Unwritten
Posted on: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 16:21:41 +0000
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