“To grow, you must be willing to let your present and future be totally unlike your past. Your history is not your destiny.” — Alan Cohen
We all have met those individuals be they members of our family, loved ones, friends, colleagues, associates, acquaintances from whatever walk of life, who simply will not relinquish their past history. They seem to wear it like a scarlet letter or badge of honor, depending on their perspective and perception. Thinking of it in another way through personal experience, some individuals view themselves as victims of circumstance, and relive that moment in time or specific observation . . . over and over again, stuck in a time warp of their own choosing without a willingness to change direction. Mark Nepo expresses a different thought, “A river doesn’t hold all the water that passes through it.”
For growth, our willingness to release the past, live actively alert in the present and embrace acceptance for what the future may hold is almost inconceivable to a great many people. As an educator, observing many levels of young people whether involving academic or artistic performance certain elements of growth remained constant. Of course, the individual child brought a different skill set to each challenge, however, it was always a constant source of creative energy that propelled them in a specific direction. What was most unique for those of us dealing with these young people, was how they used inherent skills to their advantage implementing unusual outcomes that encouraged growth. The words of Samuel Taylor Coleridge put this in another way, “Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.”
When reflecting on the past, and where we find ourselves in this very moment . . . those twists and turns of fate have caused our lives immense change and what we perceived as our destiny at 12, 18 or 25, is a far cry from what is in the now. Often we come to recognize that those changes occurred when we became conscious of who we are . . . why we are here and where we are going. Of course, Albert Einstein can be counted on to refer to the experience of life in another way . . . “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”
In the basic sense, no matter where we find ourselves it is imperative that we grow and consciously learn the commonality of our existence. No one can do this for us, it is our responsibility to accept who we are in truth, consciousness, courage, faith, trust, and grace. Once that threshold is reached the words of Thomas Merton illuminate the journey . . . “Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul.” JLR