November is the month of remembering. It's a time for us all to pause and honour those who willingly fought for the freedoms we now enjoy.
But, sometimes it is also healthy for us to pause and acknowledge those things from our past that we should have already forgotten — memories, we may still be carrying with us, allowing them control over our thinking — as we continue regretting what no longer can be recovered.
We all have unfulfilled dreams. Perhaps, disappointed with past failures, financial setbacks; a sought-after educational degree left unfinished or, a desired career; the promotion you thought was deserved instead, given to another; a promising relationship that went wrong; unsolicited and hurtful advice that caused deep wounds; or, others made you feel small or not accepted.
Forgiveness is necessary. We can't go forward by looking in the rearview mirror. Sometimes we need to reinvent our lives or, redefine ourselves.
"Each morning as we wake-up, we have two choices: to continue our sleep with bad dreams or, to wake-up and forget our past disappointments and chase our dreams — the choice is ours."
— Beulah Eagles
The following excerpts from an article written years ago by Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933), American author, educator and clergyman, seems to put it in perspective:
"Am I willing to ignore what the world owes me, and to think what I owe the world? To see that my fellowmen are just as real as I am and try to look behind their faces to their hearts; to realize that probably the only good reason for my existence is not what I am going to get out of life, but what I am going to give to life; to close my book of complaints against the management of the universe, and look around me for a place where I can sow a few seeds of love."
So, don't let the heart go to waste — use it to bless others. Treat everybody as if they were somebody.
Remember these five things that you cannot retrieve in life...
- a stone after it's thrown
- a word after it's said
- an occasion after it's missed.
- the time after it's passed
- a person after they die
— beulah
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