The burden most people choose to carry

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” ~ Ralph Waldo…

Part of growing older is realizing that nearly everyone is carrying private regrets.

The question is not whether mistakes will happen.

The question is whether you will build a home inside them.

Some people do.

But there are some people who learn something different…

A mistake is tuition.

A lesson.

A chapter.

Not an address.

Life moves in one direction.

Forward.

The people who build meaningful lives understand this.

They learn.

Adjust.

Apologize when necessary.

Improve when possible.

Then continue.

Not because they are perfect.

Because they understand something important:

A person who cannot let go of yesterday eventually loses today as well.

And today is where life actually happens.

The laughter.

The fun.

All of it exists here.

Tonight, before you sleep, remember something.

You are allowed to be a work in progress.

You are allowed to have made mistakes.

Everybody does.

Everybody.

The person you are becoming does not need to be chained forever to the person you used to be.

Put the day down.

The victories.

The failures.

The embarrassments.

The unfinished tasks.

Put them down.

Tomorrow will arrive whether you are ready or not.

When it does, greet it with a clear mind, an open heart, and the understanding that life is far too short to spend it endlessly reliving old mistakes.

The sun rises every morning without carrying yesterday.

There may be wisdom in that.