I am watching the birds in the trees outside my office window as I write this. All of nature has one unique thing, and that is the ability to live in the now! It is only the human species that has an emotional part, which keeps us in the past, judging that past event rather than putting it behind us and moving forward. It is the Self part of us in its glory; living in its fear! Why do we do this? We do it because we have a fear of the future. Instead of looking at challenges and changes as new adventures, we have so much fear about change. When we make the decision to make changes in our life, the Self part of us, the ego, comes in and begins the mind chatter about how dangerous it is, or look what happened the last time we tried to do it.
What happened prior has nothing to do with now; it is a complete and utter different situation. What happened prior may have happened many years ago, when we did not know what we know now. Yes, we made mistakes because of that situation, but we are different now, and much wiser, but the Self is still in fear about the past and cannot let go.
The birds outside of my window may have had a lean year the year before. Maybe there was too much snow and they could not feed, but they have forgotten that. And, because they are living in the now, they accept the now; where there is no fear and no doubt! Maitreya taught me a long time ago to live in the now, and I try to live that way as much as I can. It is not easy and I cannot say I do that 100% of the time, but I try hard not to be connected to fear, and not to listen to that inner voice of the Self.
The birds are happy Spring is here, looking forward to Summer, devoid of past thoughts and energy, all they know is now! Recently, both Alan and I began the process of going into the past and blaming ourselves for things that had happened. Maitreya came in and spoke to me, reminding me of what we were doing, it was so hard not to do that. He told me it would not change things, it had transpired and could not be altered. Accept the past as a learning situation and move on. It seemed so easy; the Self part of me wanted to play the “past” game as I called it, but with Maitreya’s energy I was able to move away from it. How blessed I am to have that, how blessed both Alan and I are, so very blessed.
So, I will try hard not to judge by the past, Maitreya told me “look at how many people were on drugs and alcohol and are now teachers and counselors, free of these substances!” I had to admit it was so, and if they could move on, so could I. So my new affirmation is “I no longer allow the past to influence me and make me the victim. There are no victims, only lessons to be learned from, to enable us to move on.” Brilliant!
by Margaret McElroy