Don't Look Back?

Here’s a riddle for you:

If you don’t examine your past,

how can you improve your future?

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If you don’t pay attention

to your mistakes,

how can you avoid making them again?

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The self-improvement industry

tells us not to look back; the command

is ‘forward, ever forward.’

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But that’s an incomplete option, I think.

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To me, the reality, the truth

is much more nuanced, much harder,

even if it is much simpler.

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Shame and remorse, tough to feel,

tougher still to overcome,

remind us that we are Beings of Consciousness.

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They are quivering neon signs

buzzing along a desert highway,

reminders of missteps,

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memories of imperfection personified.

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It’s a terrifying thing to drive past them,

but even more terrifying to pull over

and follow that exit into the darkness.

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You can feel the buzz of the neon

crackling like ozone before a thunderstorm,

a million little crawlers on your skin,

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and you have a choice, of course:

Enter and examine,

or turn and flee.

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Which will it be?

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Run away and you’re on the treadmill of repetition,

destined to make the same mistakes

until the lessons are learned.

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Examine, and you will be faced with

ugliness and shame, and you’ll

feel devoured, dismembered, disjointed.

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But your awareness will save you,

don’t forget that. That’s the key

to your redemption:

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Looking into the pit and asking, “why?”

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We are eternity in action.

We are quantum beings living a human experience.

We are Light, we are Energy, we are Love.

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The instruction should not be

‘don’t look back.’ It should be

‘Look back to examine, to understand.’

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Look back and forgive.

Look back and heal.

Look back and remember.

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Face your past. Just don’t live there.