Despite the direction that this blog sometimes takes, I am normally not a
person who lives in the past. I tend to be more comfortable barreling
ahead to the next thing, neither resting on my successes nor stewing in
my failures (okay, I do stew sometimes, but I'm working on it).
Today, however, I got an email from a friend I met many years ago, in an
organization that was central to my life then, but isn't now. She
reads my blog, both as a friend from my past and as a like-minded person
in the present, and her interest reminds me that, while it might not be
so healthy to take up residence in the past, it's actually not such a
terrible thing to appreciate the places you came from and the people who
were there with you. Those experiences, long ago as they may have
been, buried as they might be in our current memory, can't help but
inform our choices now. Whether it's family, or school, or charity work,
or paid employment, our history--perhaps more so than the list of
accomplishments we toss around on a daily basis--makes us the people we are now.
So while I spent much of today working out a post "pointing me toward
tomorrow," my friend's email turned me around. Looking ahead doesn't
have to mean forgetting what's behind. I may be pointing toward
tomorrow, but I'll make sure not to forget or regret today, or
all of my yesterdays. Or the things back then that "I did for love."
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