"He who has not first laid his foundations may be able with great ability to lay them afterwards, but they will be laid with trouble to the architect and danger to the building."
- Niccolo Machaivelli (The Prince)
We still need to leverage on our past in our quest to shape our lives.
Now that 2010 is finally taking its place in the annals of history, everyone is keen to see how long they can last before New Year resolutions are abandoned and old habits are embraced once again. Actually, the resolutions will not be forgotten that fast, what is most likely to happen is that many will be leading busy lives in the stead of disciplined lives.
That said, we often entirely lose sight of our past and thereby forget the good in it that brought us to where we are. In forgetting past encounters, we fail to realize that the people involved may have added value at some point. In forcefully erasing past activities from our routines, we fail to see that only by doing them then did would we learn that they are damaging, and thereby learn to avoid bigger mistakes and loss in the future.
Much has been written and sung in an attempt to address what was. In Larnelle Harris's song 'I miss my time with you', God asks,
it hurt's me when you say
you're too busy
busy trying to serve me
but how can you serve me
when your spirit's empty
Likewise, Nelly Furtado sings about an abandoned, forgotten love:
We forgot about love
We forgot about faith
We forgot about trust
We forgot about us
Now our love's floating out the window
Our love's floating out the back door
Our love's floating up in the sky in heaven
Where it began back in God's hands
In trying to shape an uncertain destiny, we need to go back to the basics, and carry on with those worthwhile things that brought us this far.
What things in your past, no matter how much you want to let go of it, do you give credit for getting you to where you currently are? Read more about: back to basics, cherish, Insight, Inspiring Music, New Year, old habits, past, resolutions
