Meandering
August 22, 2007 by WinterAngel
Solitary wandering
through the closet of my mind
Sorting through the clutter
of the things I’ve left behind
Bringing back fond memories
the stuff I used to do
Looking over past mistakes
reliving, re-loving too
My memories come back to me
in dreams at early morn
Awakening I grasp the dream
but parts of it are torn
I wander down the lane again
through past, forgotten times
Through childhood stories I used to love
and touching poem lines
And I am meandering,
always meandering…
This was a poem I wrote a few years back. Sometimes, we can’t help but engage in trysts with the past; the joy and sorrow, the laughter and tears, the elation and pain, the triumph and defeat. We take a walk down memory lane and we stop to appreciate each flower growing along the path. But then there are times that we take too long looking at the ruts and bumps along the road that we fail to appreciate the beauty of the blossoms and the shade given by the trees. We get so preoccupied with processing the mistakes and the failures, our hearts get so overwhelmed by the pain and the regrets that we miss hearing the soft trill of the bluebird and the rainbow painting the sky.
If there is one reason why the past exists, it wouldn’t be to let the pain and regrets plague us. It would be for us to realize that while there may have been stumbling blocks along the way, everything happened for a reason. Sometimes, it takes time for us to understand, and sometimes we never could understand at all, but we must take comfort in the fact that God sends things our way for His own purposes and for our own good.
The past is more than just a collection of crystallized memories. It is a book with evolving chapters that teaches us life’s most important lessons. But we must remember that although what-have-beens may have shaped us as individuals, they do not complete the definition of our entire being. Each day brings forth new opportunities and new decisions, and each choice we make would likewise be either a rut or a flower along memory lane’s path. This is why I say that the past is a book with evolving chapters. Ultimately, we decide on everything that transpires.
Let us not allow the past haunt us, rather, let it teach us how we could make everything better. Remember that we have the choice to make the path ahead of us longer, brighter, and more beautiful than the path behind us. Let us learn from the bumps and the ruts and then let us move on. Let us take more time to appreciate the flowers. After all, aren’t the flowers the ones that have drawn the butterflies closer?
