Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Become

"It's never too late to become the person you might have been."
- George Elliot 


  Hurt happens...suffering happens...consequences exist...however, becoming is not set in stone. The past may influence by being what I don't want. Encouraging me to move away from past behaviors. Or I can look forward to a different future and strive towards positive goals.  I can not change what happened to me.  The only thing I can control is my reaction.  I can change my reaction to my past,  reevaluate my present and move on to new goals.

Sometimes I here people trying to encourage me with platitudes.....

"Someday it will be as if nothing happened."
"Forgive and you will be back to what you were before."
"You can make your life as if the hurt never happened."
"It's never too late to become the person you might have been."

My past happened. I learned some lessons that changed me permanently.  I don't believe that going back is needed.  I would change this quote to "It's never too late to become."  My life altered at age 5, too early to even guess where I was headed.  My life took twists and turns on a wild ride through hills and valleys and the very depths of hell on Earth.  The journey changed me, however, it's never too late to become.













3 comments:

Judith said...

I like how you revised the saying.

Your post reminds me of this quote: those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.

Life's not really about putting on blinders and forgetting the bad past, it's about growing from it or even despite it.

Unknown said...

Hi Ruth, In view of what happened to you, those platitudes are inappropriate. Though I believe in God I don’t believe in hell in a hereafter. Hell IS on earth because the world breeds monsters. Once we have learned to recognise them they can be avoided with more than a little satisfaction.
Going through hard times is dreadful but I am certain you come out the other side a stronger wiser person.

This is a favourite quote of mine:
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson;

Love, Angela

Ruth said...

vicariousrising I like your thought that we grow from our past.

Thanks colleen Kellie, I had a poster with that quote on my wall when I was a teenager, one of my favorites.