What Is The Past?

Sometimes it can be nice to take a walk down memory lane.  We revisit the days of our youth, call upon old friends, recall the “good times” before “life” happened.  If we are not cautious, that stroll may be so enticing and enjoyable that it turns into a vacation, a retreat.  Once we stay longer in the past, we become comfortable with the way things were.  After all, we know where we belong in the past.  It is familiar, a known constant.  At that point, taking up permanent residence in the past is all too easy.  We forget about the problematic nature of the present, the unknown quantity of the future.  We take comfort in the things we’ve known and done.  Perhaps we have a friend or two who share in our revelry and help to revive the feelings of youth, daring, carefree living.  That is when we’ve struck the proverbial ice berg.

We know that our past is behind us, yet it still holds such strong sway over us.  Our past shaped us into whom and what we are today.  We learn from and grow from the experiences in our past.  However, Disney said it best when Timon and Pumbaa instructed young Simba to leave his past behind him (or was it his behind in the past?).  Our past is over.  It is done.  It cannot be changed, no matter how much we yearn to change the things that didn’t turn out as planned.  It is a chapter in our lives that should be closed.  We can look through the windows and see glimpses of what our past was, but we should never break the locks and force the door open to visit in or move back to our past.

Occasionally a brief foray into the past is instrumental in moving forward into the future.  The experiences we’ve had help us to understand how to deal with the events we will encounter.  The key to this is to keep the trip brief.  Each day that we live our past waxes and our present and future wans.  This is the nature of life.  We are not given an infinite number of days; in such a scenario our past and future would be given equal weight.  As it stands, our past can weigh us down and prevent us from enjoying our present and from moving into our future.  When we spend too much time visiting (or move into) our past, we completely miss our present and wake one day in the near (or distant, as it may be) future and wonder where the days, weeks, months, or even years have gone.  They will have gone the way of all our days – to the past.

We sometimes feel that our past was halcyon compared to the trials and tribulations we endure in the present.  Sometimes we wish to seek closure from a relationship or event that left us feeling raw, bitter perhaps.  As difficult as it seems to move past those things, the past should be left alone.  Breathing new life into old memories and friendships feels exciting, fresh.  They can quickly become monsters consuming our energy and focus that would be better spent on the people and things that are currently the most important pieces of our lives – our present.  Like our days on earth, our focus and energy are finite.  Staying too long in the past causes us to neglect our present, which desperately needs the devotion of our focus and energy. 

This is especially true when you have children.  As quickly as our own lives pass, the lives of our children are in perpetual motion at Mach III.  How sad to wake one day and realize that the time we could have spent making memories and having meaningful experiences with our children was wasted reliving a past that is long deceased.  From this day forth, I pledge the greatest gift I can give to my children (and myself).  I will no longer live in the past.  I will embrace my present and look forward to my future.  I will not allow my past to drag me down, to sully my present, to change my future.  I will stand bravely and face into the winds of this turbulent time in which we live.  I will live now rather than then.  My past is my past, and I will limit my exposure to window shopping, a visit to a museum.  I will not attempt to resurrect a part of my past unless it will explicitly help me better my present or future.  I will not allow my past to deconstruct what I have painstakingly built based upon the foundation it laid.

Today is a gift, that is why it is called the present.  The past is gone, it is where we Put Away Sections of Time.  The Bible calls for us to put away the childish things of our pasts to claim our rightful positions as adults.  It is a difficult thing to do, but it is necessary.  In addition to the things of our past, sometimes the people of our past should be detained there.  They need not travel with us through life.  It is acceptable, necessary even, to keep them on an extended layover while you go on living.  All you must do is refer to the poem about friendships for Reasons, Seasons, or Lifetimes, and you will quickly see that not all of our friendships are scripted for a Lifetime.  There will come a day when our reminiscences are all we have, and at that time it will be a wonderful thing to be able to call upon our memories of days-gone-by.  While there is still a bountiful life to live in the present and future, our past should be like the wind at our back – pushing us forward to bigger and better things.