Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Reflections of the Past


Self Reflection, digital image

It's that time of year. Everyone gets a little edgy about what they've accomplished in life, and naturally reflects on their past and where they are going. But I'm really tired of well meaning inferences to how our past makes us who we are today. I mean, if our past was bumpy and challenging, does this make us broken?

Only the good in our past stays with us and makes us who we are...it's not what terrible things that have happened to us that shape us...it's how we rise like a Phoenix out of the ashes and are reborn of Spirit that makes us who we are and have always been. Maybe past reflection gives us a better view into who we really have been all along.

General thought today maintains that the future is created by the past, and that, like human machines, we repeat our past in our tendencies. It is further held that if we would be free of our past, we must have breakthroughs in consciousness, or we cannot do anything new.

I want to challenge this mode of thinking.

The past is actually defined by the present and by the future...and not the other way around.

"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." --George Orwell

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