Past experience has been there to help me to make sense of future experiences. It was meant to help me interpret new things, and it often did. I suppose that is what the past has done for me for most of my life. The past has served a real purpose and benefit. Past experiences not only had a meaning of their own but they served as a means to interpret new encounters.
At some point, I began to notice that the past had become baggage. It had become a suitcase no longer of use, out of place, a bit moldy.
Much like past purchases, once new fresh and exciting, the past began to become the clutter surrounding me, limiting my movement, my perspective, my space. The past at some point stopped being of use and became a collection of mementos, organic figurines kept on a shelf or behind glass.
The past has often even disfigured my experiences and caused me to misinterpret what was right in front of me. My helpful past has become a distraction.
I have begun to value and appreciate what shows up in my every-day world with true presence and meaning. I am learning to experience “now” things not because they fit into some pattern of past experience, but because they invite new, fresh insight. Plants familiar in my garden still have that aura of the past, but they have more significance because they are here today. And they are different.
Memories still have an influence on my perception and my awareness, but less than they once did. There is sometimes comfort in remembering the past, but I seldom dwell there. My attention and awareness is more on the present. Slowly, I am leaving the baggage of the past, leaving it behind. It sits on yesterday’s platform, no longer of great use.