Now that I am a parent I’m thinking about past lives. I’ve had lives that my kids will never see or know. (Nor should they?) Those experiences feel like distant dreams to me. Was I a different person? Today will one day feel like a distant dream, if I even remember it. Which makes me realise: My parents had lives I will never see or know. How fascinating! To know someone so well, but unaware of the formative parts of their life story. And maybe that’s the part that shaped them into the person you love today. But you will never see or know that. For whatever reason, that past is not for you to know. And that’s ok. Cause you also have things you will quite happily leave in the past.
Reflection
This recalls all kinds of feelings around past stories, friends, transformation, growth and shame.
You’ve done some things you aren’t proud of. Maybe your younger self dived head-first into things your adult self no longer approves of. Perhaps you burned some bridges and experienced failure.
Did you “peak” in your 20s or 30s? Maybe you lived an adventurous life of a vagabond exploring the world. Maybe you did something so freaking extraordinary that your older, conservative self cheers in admiration of your fearless bravery.
Or maybe you have a darker side to yourself that rarely sees the light of day, and your close ones would be shocked to discover that part of you in a chance encounter.
Either way, you cannot convey all this experience to another person. Not in the depth you feel it. You have to have lived it.
So, instead of worrying about all those past lives, focus on the character you are today. You are all the living proof you need for your wonderful being. That speaks for itself.
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