Life is always full of surprises... some good and others not so good. Often times these surprises bring with them a certain amount of change, and more often than not these changes can and will likely have a huge impact on your life, whether one is prepared for it or not. It is certainly not easy to go through any new path, one of uncertainty and doubt, not knowing what you will find at the other end. In life one comes to expect a certain level of familiarity, of comfort, of knowing and expecting that everything will remain exactly the same day after day. It is human nature to gravitate towards what you know is safe. Hence, we blindly go through the motions of our daily routines, oblivious to the fact that our world is constantly moving and changing all around us.
Once these changes occur, there is no going back. Not to say that things can't go back to the way they used to, but no matter how much you try, things will never be exactly the same. The experience itself changes you and everyone else involved and thus, one now needs to make the ultimate decision: spend time trying to rebuild the life you once had or look into the future and let go of the past. I've often said that if you don't want to remember the past, don't bring it up in the present, but this is often times so hard to do when so much of where you are, and maybe who you are, is tied to your past. Longing for the life you used to have can pull you away from the life you are meant to have. Thus, preventing you from moving forward and going on with your life. Coming to accept these changes can often times be harder than actually making them. Yet, without accepting and acknowledging these changes that have or are about to take place, one fails to see the lessons being taught and look forward to the future that lies ahead.
Having accepted the changes and moved on with your life, what happens when you revisit the past? Although never forgotten, one unconsciously buries the past and sometimes, to our dismay, it creeps out from underneath. Other times, one makes the conscious decision to go back in time and unbury the past, maybe hoping that there might be a semblance of the life once had. Regardless of how it happens, the fact is that one must deal with it right there and then, otherwise it might never truly go away. Having arrived, it doesn't take long before you realize that what was once there is no more and even if the pieces are still there, they no longer fit. And then you realize that the past was never truly constant, but just moving along besides you in your journey towards the future and it just happened to catch up with you in the present.
So it happens that changes do take place all around, not just in your life, but also in the lives of others. And even more shocking, realizing that what you thought was there was never there to begin with, remembering a past that may not have existed after all. And with disappointments and frustrations that one experiences having come to this realization, comes a deeper level of understanding that the past is meant to stay in the past and only those things, whether it's people, faith, or life lessons, that are meant to help push you towards the future will be there no matter what new changes take place in your life. In the end, what you carry with you is what will make you stronger and even if from time to time you end up looking back over your shoulders, know that your life is that much richer and complete having gone through it all.
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