My Past Helps Me to Enjoy My Present

My Past Helps Me to Enjoy My Present

Conventional wisdom often counsels us as human beings to not live in the past, or in particular, not to stay “stuck in the past.” And, while I certainly don’t dispute that guidance, particularly if the thoughts of the past keep one in a negative frame of mind, I for one don’t like to completely dismiss thoughts and memories of my past. In fact, I find myself often embracing my past.

We live in a very confusing world much of the time. That has often likely been the case, but we often think the present time has been the most confusing in the history of civilization. While that is likely not true, what does often change is the way the world around us provides us information. In our current age, it can be immediate if we so choose to always be plugged in to what is going on. Information can come to us on the many electronic devices that we either wear on our body, (such as watches), or carry in our pocket (such as phones). For someone like me who chooses not to carry those devices, I know I can often quickly find out items happening in the world when I am signed on to my computer, as I am currently in writing this article. And, while they still exist, some of our former ways of getting information such as television, radio or newspaper often take a secondary role and become the place where we get in depth info and opinion into what has happened and how different individuals interpret its meaning.

For me the past that I enjoy, and which helps often times to simplify things for me, is most often in my mind. It may be when I am in my automobile driving, having the radio turned on and listening to songs that were released and became popular when I was in my teens or twenties. It can be in living, witnessing or hearing about an incident that is happening now, and equating it back to something from my past. For example, I always enjoyed television situation comedies, and something will happen and I’ll say to someone near me, “there was a Seinfeld, or there was a Honeymooners episode of which this situation reminds me.”

Sometimes the past provides answers to the way I will receive and process information in my current day life. I grew up in a blue collar family with parents that did not have an education past high school. However, they taught my sisters, brother and I to be kind to everyone we meet, to accept them as people and individual human beings and not judge them on any other criteria than “if they are people who are kind and polite toward you, you should be the same way in return.” Thankfully, I can truly say, that my siblings and I in the way we live our life in 2019, still practice that today.

My blue collar home was in a blue collar town of fellow families similar to ours. And, while many of my school mates from grammar school and high school no longer live in that blue collar town, (although some do), when we get together, we share that same bond from our school days. We experience the world individually in our different jobs, professions, new home towns and experiences, but when we reunite as classmates, (which thankfully is quite often and at least one or two times a year), it is as if we have brought our past values into the present world. We connect and re-connect with each other through those past learnings.

So, if you find yourself chastised by others “for living in the past,” don’t let it get to you. Yes, I would say if the past has you in depression, or falling back into patterns that are keeping you from enjoying your life, or feeling you are a victim of circumstances, you have some introspection and work to do. However, if you find that your ability to live your present and enjoy each day for what it brings is fueled by your past learned experiences and values, go for it. The key is to live and enjoy each and every day with whatever tools help you to do so, and move forward into your future knowing your past has been built on a foundation that works for you.