A Poem: NAILING THE PAST

I woke up from bed early yesterday, and these thoughts came like water from a newly-opened faucet, flowing until no more. I am sharing this here.

NAILING THE PAST

When the past haunts, NAIL it!

Nailing the past is acknowledging it
Accepting that it DID exist, it was real
Nailing the past is fixing it in one place
So that it can't move, it can't play around and make a fool of those living in the present and those having a future to pursue.

Yes, the past is gone
But when not nailed, it can carry a life far stronger
than either the present or the future
and Both together.

When not nailed, it can hide, it can just pop up and show faces
Taunting
Haunting
Disturbing
Crippling & Paralyzing
Trapping and killing any hope of something better
and the promise of a brighter life & living.

Nailing the past is holding it in the light, keeping it still
Not simply forgetting it, nor believing it never was - denying it
For once denied, the past is set free to create itself again
Making us in the present its slaves, condemned to no growth,
no possibilities, no redemption

Yes, the past can kill
Just look at the One who carried all our pasts and had them nailed on the cross
Yes, the past is really best nailed than forgotten.

Forgetting the past is believing it never was
Forgetting that we are its fruits ready to be sown to create another past again
Forgetting is denying, is not being watchful,
not knowing of its power to rise along with what is new and better.

How can we so simply say "forgive and forget?"
What a travesty of justice!
To forgive? YES! To forget? NO!
Sorry, but past is past and may best be forgiven, not forgotten.
For to forget is to say we were never really there ourselves.
Were we then living unconsciously as if in the dark
That having a past to be forgotten is like having nothing seen or experienced
Therefore we were never really living?

The past will always be ready to devour us
Like a black hole awaiting our careless steps
Happy to stir us back to our old and dying selves

But when nailed, the past can be crippled, and we become free
To choose something better, something more enduring:
Eternal life with the freedom of the Beloved: Truly Living.