Lesson 289
The past is over. It can touch me not.
“Father, let me not look upon a past that is not there. For You have offered me Your Own replacement, in a present world the past has left untouched and free of sin. Here is the end of guilt. And here am I made ready for Your final step. Shall I demand that You wait longer for Your Son to find the loveliness You planned to be the end of all his dreams and all his pain?” (ACIM Lesson 289 2:1-5).
Author Byron Katie, and creator of The Work, says, “Who would you be without your story?” This brilliant question is primarily asking us to notice where in our consciousness are we still holding ourselves hostage. Where do we continue to hold onto our past, allowing it create our present situation and future?
There is only this moment. There is nothing else. In this moment we can choose to see Reality or we can choose to see a world based on previous moments, the past. Letting go of the past is something that affects us all. Whether you had a wonderful past experience that you wish was still in the present or whether you experienced something traumatic and can’t seem to find healing, the past is tough to let go of and in this, we can all understand one another’s plight. Regardless of the reason, the Reality of it is the past is no longer here, which is a gift. It is the gift that enables us to continue to choose again. Our past does not determine Who and What we are. We can choose anew in each moment, recommitting our lives to peace and love.
The beauty in moving beyond the past is that we can take the lessons we learned and apply them to this moment. Our previous choices cannot hold us back, but can harness the gift to motivate us to move forward in a new, different, or perhaps, even deeper way.
A dear friend of mine is returning to New Zealand soon. It is not her home country but she has residency there and can return whenever she wishes. She excited to move back but also has the attitude, “If things don’t work out, I can always come back home to France.” This is the beauty of choosing again with evolved awareness. Sometimes, we may want to revisit an option from the past because we have learned that it may suit us better at this stage of the journey. It does not mean that we fully return to the past but rather we learn from the past and revisit it anew. It is also true that if something does not work out, we are free to choose again…and again…and again. The point being, we are never stuck or trapped. We are free to flow throughout this world as we wish. As Children of God, our gift is our freedom and Lesson 289 inspires us to live in just that manner, free.
The only chains that can bind you are the ones in your mind. You are the jailor and the jailee. When you are ready, you are free to Walk in Miracles. You can nod at the past, thank it, honor it, and then walk away because it touches you not. What would you do if you no longer had a past? In the words of Byron Katie, “Who would you be without your story?” Most importantly, now that you know the past no longer haunts you, what would you go and do? Namaste.
