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The road we travel is long. Some steps we take are steady, some are less firm, sometimes our foot slips and we land solidly on our behind. But each step moves us forward, each step advances us, urges us onward, for better or for worse. And yet, we may turn, our steps blind and backwards, as we gaze upon the path behind us. Why do we bother? Surely it makes forward momentum more difficult - why, what if there is a large rock ahead of us?! Walking backwards, we are not likely to see it? Yet, we cannot stop either, our focus on the path behind us... We have places to be! Adventures to be had! People to meet! Experiences to experience! They will not wait for us. We cannot change the path behind us - what good does it do to dwell on each stumble, on each small thing we did not stop to do, on each person who might have wronged us on our travels? No, we must endure. We must return our gaze to the path ahead of us, see where we are going and face each new dawn with our face to the sun, ready and willing for the experience of fresh joys, of fresh sorrows, of fresh loss and fresh success in equal measure. And so it goes, and goes, and goes... Yet that path behind, richly laid, our footfalls still echoing in the annals of time. The ripples form as the stone hits the water's surface - we are the culmination of our experience, of our sights, of our thoughts, of our words, of our actions. The people that we meet, they carry a part of ourselves as we carry a part of them. And memories etched deep in our minds that we can conjure at a moment's notice, when we feel the pulls of emotion, that we might relive the glee or the woe, when we need the reminder that our lives have meaning, when we need the reminder that we would rather have the pain of loss than to not have had anything worth losing in the first place. Have I made mistakes? Surely. Have I found great truths? Certainly. Have I learned about myself along the way? Assuredly. As time weighs heavily upon us, the wisdom of age builds us up, slows us down. While best travelled facing the sun, it is important that we pause and glance behind us, survey the road travelled; where memory lay, we find gratitude, we find remembrance, we find the things that are important to us that we might search for as we move forward. And we do move forward, ever forward, with one eye on the horizon...and one on our past. In knowing our histories we know who we are and how we got here. In knowing our histories we know what values we must hold dear. In knowing our histories we know what tragedies we wish not to repeat. In knowing our histories we know ourselves. Alys | |