It is amazing to me how we deal with the past. When I am talking about "the past" I am referring to our past or other's past. As we grow up we do stupid stuff. We do things that when we look back we have no idea how we survived and things that we have no idea what we were thinking we did it or things that got in some type of trouble. But you know the thing that we all have in common is that we survived and can tell others about it. The other thing that most of us did also, is that we learned from the mistake that we made and we move on with our lives and we never do that things again. We grew, we changed our thinking, we change our ways and realized how badly we could have or did hurt ourselves or even worse, someone else. We took our punishment, whether it was personal consequences or legal consequences and grew from the experience. But most importantly... we never did that again. People that knew about it didn't write you off, those that you offended forgave you or maybe they didn't but you served your time and you have grown from the experience. So here is my question, why do we hold those things over someone's over someone's head?
We want people to be better and when they do we still bring up what they used to do or how they used to be. We don't truly give people the benefit of the doubt that they have changed. It seems so true the people can't out run their past. This is true not because the person hasn't tried but because we won't let them. We continue to attach that thing to them and bring it up anytime sometime goes wrong or even worse when something goes right. Why do we do that?
There are so many of us that if we look back at the things that we did, we wouldn't want to be around ourselves. We wouldn't give our old selves a chance. We also remember when we made the change to grow up and do better. We expected people to not hold what we did over our heads and look at who we are now.
Why don't we do the same for others. Let's do better and give people a chance and not always bring up their past. If they are repeating the same things then take that as they are but if they are doing better, encourage and support them. We want to uplift and not tear down. There is too much darkness in the world. Be the light that others need.