“Don’t look back,” they say.
“Forget about the past,” they say.
But are we not–today–a collection of yesterdays?
Do we not see, in today’s mirror, the reflection of yesterday’s choices?
How can we forget when our looking glass forces us to remember?
But how dare they say “Don’t look back.” How dare they say “Forget the past.”
Those who forget the failures of the past are doomed to repeat them…
…and those who forget the victories of their past are doomed to never see them again.
If we lose the echos of our past, do we not lose the color of today? Do those reverberations not flavor the choices that dictate our unwritten futures?
Our history is our school master. We can fear it and fail, or learn and triumph. We can drown in our past, or be liberated by its teaching.
Regret is good. It proves you have a conscience. Shame is a blessing. It inspires change. But how can we change if we forget the choices that brought shame and regret?
And how can we be motivated to do good if we forget the good we’ve done?
Every day is another chance to start over.
Every day is a chance for a new choice or the same choice.
Every day we can change our reflection or keep it the same.
Every day gives us a reason to celebrate as every day begins a new year, and every night is a new year’s eve.
So it’s okay to look back. It’s okay to remember…
…as long as we see who we were that it may guide us to who we’ll become.
Happy New Year.
Read the first 28 pages of JR’s latest novelette, The Tale of Nottingswood, for free by visiting Nottingswood.com. Available now in print, or pre-order the eBook for a discount on iBooks, Nook, or Kobo.
Click here to join JR on Goodreads, follow him on Facebook here, and read his interview with Smashwords here.
J.R. Young 