One day it will all be a distant memory.
And it doesn’t matter what you do.
It doesn’t matter if it what you experience today or lived out yesterday was good or bad. Happy or sad. Memorable or somewhat forgettable.
It doesn’t matter what you do. It doesn’t matter, because everything, no matter how insignificant, how grand, embarrassing or otherwise, will one day be forgotten.
Our mistakes and bruises, as well as our many disappointments and transgressions, will soon be forgotten and overshadowed by the art of living.
You see, we were born with an expiration date.
We are no different than a carton of milk at the supermarket.
One of the great benefits of growing older, is not having enough time to keep track of every mistake or transgression that caused us to stumble.
We were not granted the time to look back, or concern ourselves with what was, or what could have been. It is not important. We are people faith and hope. Individuals living our lives forward and the future doesn’t depend on our past.
Even if you try. Even if you persist and stomp your feet. In time, everything fades, blurs, and becomes a distant passing memory. The intensity of the moment fades. We forget why, how, or how often.
So, it really doesn’t matter if what you experienced up to now has been virtuous or corruptible, joyful or melancholy, unforgettable or unremarkable. It doesn’t matter. What matters, however, is who you were and who you want to be.
You.
Not who you were but who you are. Who you want to be.
I am not diminishing your real pain and the agony you might have suffered. Far from it. What you have endured and overcome is very courageous. I am simply musing about the past, and how to leverage that experience and redeem the future.
It is really important to redeem our future. It is important to hope. To strive forward.
We simply cannot let the bastards grind us down.
You have no right to hunt yourself down either.
All our actions and thoughts, ultimately end up in a rusty, unassuming, storage container, buried deep inside our unconscious mind. Yet as we grow and dance with wisdom, our very character, the person who we are, who we have become and want to be, is ever more amplified and manifest itself ever more emphatically.
This is why, it is invaluable that we remember who we are, not what we have done, or what was done to us.
We were born to be. To be great.
For that reason, we must focus on our character, and developing that character, and not get hung up on our mistakes.
Let the dead bury the dead. Let the past remain the past.
No one will remember.
No one will care.
Your memories will be a bit hazy too.
When you look in the mirror who do you see? Do you see someone that makes you proud or do you avert your own gaze? Someone memorable or forgettable? Someone joyful or sad?
Don’t be so rough on yourself.
Remember that mistakes are events. They happened.
You are in the in the present.
The decision you make today, is not predetermined by what you did yesterday.
You are free to be.
Mistakes belong to the business of doing.
Your life belongs to the art of living.
You won’t remember anyway, so take solace in your hope, by doing something today, that will make you into someone, you won’t hesitate to share tomorrow.
Forget your mistakes. Don’t cover yourself with ugliness. Don’t carry your regret and guilt alone.
Allow yourself to forget.
No one will remember.
Focus instead on who you are.
Who you dream to be.
