Wow, what a great couple of days. A friend that I’ve known for some 40 years has been visiting from out of town, and it has been wonderful to spend time catching up. She came to Unity with me this morning as I was doing the talk there today and it was like she was already part of the group.
This is someone who knew me in my oilfield days, and I have to say, we’ve both gone through a lot of changes on every level, but the journey has been quite parallel in so many ways. It’s fun reminiscing about all the incredibly foolish things we did back then while appreciating how glad we are that we don’t have to do that anymore!
We’ve all gone through a lot in our lives; some things we are proud of, some not so much, but everything we’ve experienced has been part of what has shaped us and given us perspective. I’m glad I can laugh at the stuff that I’m not so proud of now because it means the drivers behind the behaviours have been mostly identified and integrated. The old shame and guilt I have felt around some things don’t have the power they used to because the elements of self-honesty and compassion have been added to the mix along with learning so much more about what we are.
In the end, it isn’t about avoiding thinking about what I’ve done but rather being able to see the innocence behind it all and learning to do better. To paraphrase Maya Angelou ‘When you know better do better’. That’s true of the personal journey and the collective. We seem to be trying to cancel out what happened in the past these days, judging it based on the consciousness of today. It was what they believed then which isn’t the same as now. It’s part of what formed our culture so now why not let it inform us as to what we need to do moving forward instead of trying to lay blame and guilt where it simply does not belong.
We know better; let’s do better.
Namaste
