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The past is not actually past

The past is never where you think you left it.  Katherine Anne Porter

Life has a funny way of catching up to us doesn't it?  Those old hurts, people, thoughts, actions, etc that we think we left behind us have a funny way of reappearing at, usually, the most inopportune times.  One thing I have learned about leaving the past behind is it doesn't stay there unless we have gone through the process of closure.  If we can find ways to close out our past in healthy ways then the chance that it won't pop back up at those inopportune times is better and if it does pop up the chance that we respond to it in healthy ways is better as well.  But don't think you have left it behind in a place it cannot be found or for good. The past can always be found, it is not lost forever.  If we can learn to close out our past in a healthy way then we won't despise it, fear it, or run from it when it reappears.  We will instead welcome it and the lessons we learned in it.   
So it seems to me that we have a choice about where we leave our past.  If we choose not to address it, learn from it, close it out then we leave it in a place where it can, and will, come back to "haunt" us.  If we choose to address it, learn from it, and close it out then we leave it in a place where it would be welcome should it choose to reappear.  The choice is yours but make no mistake that it is never gone forever.  

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