Shaped By the Past

One of the most important things I have learned about life from my family and friends is that every event in my life has shaped who I am today.
People come into your life and become part of your life every day. On the opposite hand, people walk out of your life, pass away, or you decide the relationship isn’t one you want to work on.

I often hear people state that they wish they had never met someone or had never had a relationship with someone.
First of all, you can’t go back and wipe those days, weeks, months. or years out of your life.
You can stop associating with a person, but you can’t eliminate the effect that they have had on your life. The impact can be minimal (I learned I didn’t like …). The impact can be significant (I will NOT let myself be made a fool of again.). The impact may have brought someone else into your life (If I had never married my first husband, I wouldn’t have the two terrific sons I have.).
We can never undo the past, but we can learn from it. We can learn about the kind of person we don’t want to be. We can learn about the kind of person we want to be. We can learn that we must stand up for ourselves. We can learn about things we don’t like to do. We can learn to be wary about who we associate with.
Isn’t that the way we should look at our past? Whatever happened happened. We have to deal with what happened; we can’t change it, but we can look at what happened and evaluate how it affected us – build upon the good and eliminate the bad in our own lives.
Thanks for reading.
AND