Thoughts #6

Hello Dear Stranger,

It’s been a while. I hope everything is going well in your life and this writing finds you in one piece!

Today, we are talking about the past.

**Past:**
‘Gone by in time’ / ‘Belonging to an earlier time’.

**Why?**
Because we need the past to have the ‘present’. Pay close attention to what I’ve just said: the ‘present’. As you may have already realized, I don’t quite get along well with the concept of the ‘future’ or the phrase ‘plan’. The past allows us to have a ‘now’. We needed the past because without it, we wouldn’t be here; we would be there, in the past, with all the things that are ‘gone by in time’. With all the things ‘belonging to an earlier time’.

**Not Being Able to Move On ‘On Time’**

When the time comes, one needs to move on.

**The Time**
When the time comes: when you have carefully considered all minuses and pluses, when the minuses are far more common than the plusses, when it feels like it’s all about giving and never receiving, when it’s all about sadness not happiness, when it’s all about melancholy not cherishing, when it’s all about struggling never relaxing. Yes, it may be the hardest thing in the world to run away from the memories. To deal with them, to try to bury them.

The good news is that, contrary to popular myth, to move on, one does not need to run away from the memories or bury them deep down. Conversely, one needs to accept, embrace, and live those memories. Live them so well that they no longer feel like memories, no longer feel like they belong to an earlier time. It may seem difficult at first, to embrace and live the memories you want to move on from. Yes, dear stranger, it may be even truer than my own name.

You cannot survive or tackle your fears without facing them, without embracing and accepting them. Without experiencing, without living them, you cannot.

If one wants to move on, one should be brave, should be ready to face the harshest part of the past—the memories, the time spent, the child that has grown over time.

**Back to Our Topic: Not Being Able to Move On?**
By the time you’ve made it this far, you probably can guess the sentences to come. If it feels like you cannot move on, check three things:

1. Are you ready?
2. Are you brave enough?
3. Do you want to be in the present?

Now, dear stranger, since you have checked all three things, tell me, what are you lacking?

Are you not ready? (Yes, you are.)
Are you not brave enough? (Yes, you are.)
Do you not want to be in the present? (No, you do not.)

Surprised? Don’t be. If you were not ready, you wouldn’t be thinking about moving on. If you were not brave enough, you wouldn’t have the courage to even entertain the idea of moving on.

You are there, in the past, belonging to an earlier time. Because, dear stranger, you do not want to be in the present. If you wanted to be in the ‘present’, you wouldn’t even think about moving on, because only those who move on are in the present, and only they could want to be there, because they have moved on. They do not belong to an earlier time, but rather they are in the ‘now’.

**Costs of Not Being Able to Move On ‘On Time’**

There are many, but one that makes up for everything:

**The Chances You Didn’t Take:**
The places you never visited, the person you did not chase after, the laughter you ignored, the memories you never created, the joy you exchanged for sadness, the experiences you missed. All because you were not able to move on in time.

HEY! Do you not realize how precious those things are?? HEY!! Realize how serious these things are!! HEY!!!!

True, you think they aren’t that important because they belonged to the present, but you; you belong to an earlier time, right?

**To Move On, One Must Want to Be in the Present**

Now, dear stranger, do you still want to move on? Do you want to be in the present, to belong to it? What? I seem to hear some noises?

LOUDER? Yes, you do.

Okay, here’s what you need to do:

Referring back to where I started, ‘Why? Because we need the past to have the ‘present”.

As I have stated before, one needs to face, to embrace, to live, and accept the memories. Not bury them deep or run away from them. Live them so well that they no longer belong to an earlier time but cease to exist.

The deceased tell no tales.

So, dear stranger, as you may have realized, I have never said it is easy to move on. Nobody says that because it is difficult, but it is doable, not impossible.

All you need to do is accept, embrace, live, and learn.

The pain will leave you when you let go. Do not hold on to it.

Farewell,

—Giray

www.youtu.be/Q4lJA_2GZI8