One of my colleagues at Toastmasters gave a riveting speech last night. He called it, Don't Bring What You Don't Want Into Your Now. Catchy title, and certainly cryptic enough. He went on to expound on what we all tend to do - live in the past or worry about the future, but specifically, bring our past failures and regrets into our present moment. He urged us to realize that the past is gone, and although we all know that intellectually, on an emotional level it is quite another thing. I know that I have many things I regret, many things I feel guilty for, many things I would like to have been different. And all these negative emotions are ruining what might otherwise be a glorious Now. It's not enough to realize that the past is gone, and there is nothing I can do to change it. I must come to grips with my actions and decisions made in the past, and judge whether they were mistakes or simply poor choices. If they were mistakes, just forget about them and move on. If they were poor choices, then my present-day life is a reflection of whatever choices I made in the past. All of it, the good and the bad of it, my life now reflects my past choices. And for the most part, I must say it is good.
The point is also that the moment I realize or do something in the now, it's already the past. It's gone. As I'm typing this, I am not sitting with my husband. That's a choice, and it's done. Finished. Gone forever. It doesn't mean that it was a bad choice, just a choice I made, as I wanted to record my memories of that speech.
The speech was good. It was inspiring. And coming from such a young man, full of wisdom for the ages.
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