Don't Go into the Painful Past
On replaying painful memories
Don’t go back to painful memories
unless you are there to heal them.
If you do decide to take this journey,
don’t go unarmed.
Go with the shield of Time,
with your battle axe of Love.
Go to heal the pain.
Talk your self—
the wounded one who lives there—
with gentleness and understanding
and above all, without judgment.
What is this thing I’m grappling with?
Why does this memory grip me so strongly that I keep returning to it—
or it keeps returning to me?
What is unfinished that needs finishing?
How can I leave this memory better than I left it last time?
Bring these answers back through time with you.
They are the bounty of your journey.
Sit with them for as long as it takes.
Don’t go into the painful past
unless you are there to heal.