Rumi, a thirteenth-century Persian Mystic told of a man who walked past a beggar and asked, “Why God, do you not do something for these people?” God replied, “I did do something. I made you.” Anonymous
“You can give without loving but you can never love without giving.” Robert Louis Stevenson
We all look back on some happy occasions and yearn for those moments again. I am so guilty of this as much or more than anybody but then I remember the present and tell myself to rejoice in my life and savor the wonderful moments. We all have wonderful past memories and sometimes they may appear more awesome at the present because we are going through a difficult time. That is when anything looks better to us.
The past should be recalled and enjoyed as many times as we want however we don’t want the cost of this to be the present moments. Life is fluid and within the fluidity we can choose many brief but happy moments to celebrate and place in our memory banks. We don’t always need pictures to recall these times. We don’t require spending a lot of money to experience them either. Truthfully if we reflected on our own lives to remember the meaningful moments it would most likely be the times another person touched our lives with words or actions.We really live in deeds and kindnesses. We are affected by soulful minutes when our emotions become overwhelmed and sometimes even spill over into tears. Rarely does one have an epiphany from recalling a vacation. I am not saying it never happens but perhaps our finest recalls just can’t be put into words or possibly even explained. Even when we think about those moments ourselves we can become overcome.
If we studied why so much emotion is tied into those times of remembrance, we comprehend that we were deeply moved within ourselves and possibly changed because of the love we experienced at that moment in time. It is powerful to recall an incident with a past relative that was so meaningful yet to explain it to another would lose all of the magic. We just sometimes don’t understand our own emotional state. We just know we were above the usual human experience.
What we can’t forget is that life is fluid and moves onward. We must continue to embrace the newness that is around us. We can’t yearn for the days when for instance the kids were younger. We must celebrate the newness of the current experiences. Otherwise we become lost in the past and stuck in time.
The hurts can also leave us immobilized. They perhaps are as draining as the happy events. Whatever might be holding us back must be released if we are to embrace something new. Life wants us to encompass the untraveled road. We can’t even be sure that road will bring us more and even better experiences. Allowing fear to immobilize us will keep us right where we are and unable to search for anything more.
Every person we allow into our lives brings us lessons. I have mentioned in other posts about the pain of changes either good or bad. Sometimes the bad can teach us about watching for the good so it really is never necessarily seen as a bad. I suppose by continuing to live our lives without shutting down is important. We can never say I have had enough of life so I am not going to engage in it in any big way. I equate this to running your car in the driveway until it runs out of gas. The car never moved anyone from place to place. The same is true with our lives.
As good as the past looks and as innocent as the times appear to be can be overshadowed by our own way of looking at it in the present. After all we only want to see the good pieces and skip the hurts. As long as we are alive we have things to look at and learn. We have choices and moments to celebrate. We have the pains but also the days to rejoice. We have things to do, to learn and to accomplish. Maybe the accomplishment for us is to increase for the better, our communication with a partner.
Some lessons may require us to learn empathy, patience, understanding, tolerance and what love means. If we gently carry ourselves forward through the fluidity of life without fear or doubt and keeping our senses fully attuned to our surroundings, we will gain more powerful experiences than we ever thought possible.
Life offers truth even when we prefer to hide from it. We cannot relive moments but we can savor them and fortify ourselves enough to gain he courage to live many more moments. As we make our choices let us reflect on the consequences of our picks. Will we be a better person or have a more profound attitude towards life with our choices or will we resent others and ourselves for what we chose. By living a meaningful life which can be very simple, we bring more favorable actions and events into our sphere of environment. This leaves us with many more wonderful thoughts and experiences to celebrate when we recall our past.
“Ask not if you are happy, ask if your life has meaning.” Anonymous
“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” Lao Tu
“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his habits of mind.” William James
