No Regrets

In a story I saw recently, someone got in an automobile accident because he was speeding and looking in the rearview mirror to see if any police cars were following him.  My initial reaction was, how foolish to be driving in one direction and looking in the other. Sometime later, the thought occurred to me that many of us live our lives trying to move forward while we are looking backward, and wondering why we don’t seem to be getting anywhere.

We all make mistakes, and have done things we are not particularly proud of, but living in a state of regret is not conducive to spiritual growth. We need to move on and honor ourselves as divine beings. We can let our mistakes paralyze us or we can see them as learning opportunities and utilize them as guides to assist in our transformation. Our lives are not about dwelling on past issues, but rather about making new choices that lead to change. Stephen Levine advises us, “Look back with soft eyes and an accepting heart.”

We are more than anything that ever happened to us, or that we have ever done. When we accept this, we can see the folly of defining ourselves by our worst moments. We can begin our journey in the present, remembering that we are all called to greatness. Whatever we can imagine, we can become, because we do not walk our path alone. We walk with the one who made all that is, including the path.