Time

"You can never plan the future by the past"
-Edmund Burke


Time is like a flame, it destroys while it creates. This simultaneous creation and destruction has always fascinated me. It's one of the many reasons why I chose to have the words of my tattoo form the shape of a flame. They say that time heals all wounds. If you cut your arm, it bleeds, the blot clots, a scab forms. Over time, new skin cells are created as the scab fades away. In the end, your skin is healed, sometimes leaving a scar behind to remind you of the memory of the cut. While memories connected to physical scars don't bring back the physical pain, emotional ones can. When you have an emotional cut, time works the same way, your heart metaphorically bleeds, and then, slowly heals, as the passage of time puts distance between the pain of the cut and the present. But emotional scars are harder to overcome than physical ones, and while time is healing that pain, it is also destroying some of the good memories. In order to put distance between yourself and painful memories, you have to get distance from the good ones too, b/c it's the good ones that make the bad ones so bad. The more you love someone, the more it hurts when you have to let them go. In order to let time heal the pain of a break up or a falling out and everything that led to it, you have to let go of some of the good memories too, b/c remembering them hurts. And that is the hardest, and worst part.

But the only way to move is forward. You don't have a choice. If you sit and dwell in the past the world will continue to move forward without you. I know someone who has spent the last half of her life living in the regrets of the past, and trust me she's not happy. I've known her my whole life, and she is my constant reminder to never plan the future by the past. You have to let time heal things, learn how to hold on to whatever good memories you can, and let the pain fade into the past.