Fresh off the Vine

God said:

Troubles of the past are no more than troubled thoughts of the past. The past is misbegotten. And the past is illusory. Desist bringing the past into the present. It is an exercise in futility. You can never win this game you play. Lose the past, and keep today viable and vibrant. Chew the candy that life offers you today. When you come across old candy, throw it away. It had its time, but now that time is past. Get some fresh candy today.

When you are at the cinema or watching a movie on TV, you do not ask the projectionist to reel off an old movie. You want to look at the movie that is right before you. An old movie may have been wonderful, or it may have been scary. In any case, it isn't the movie playing now. You want to live in more than memory. Memory is only a thought. It is reflection. You can have the real thing now.

Why would you choose anything but today's meal made fresh for you? Would you really choose last week's stew or a meal from ten years ago?

Today is what is offered to you. You'd better take it. Hold out your hand and accept today as the gift it is. It is like no other gift. Even if you happen to think all days are the same, you are mistaken. You really know better. Today provides for you. It is your provision. Even yesterday is past. You can't catch a train that has passed. You can only catch the one that is coming now. Step onto the real train that is available to you today.

You may have had a lovely train ride in the past, but what good is it to you today? It left you long ago. Why would you hang on to that which has let go of you? Memories can be delightful, and yet so can today be. You may let today go past you only to pick it up later in reverie. Pick it up now while it is hot.

Sometimes the past seems more real to you than this minute right now. That can only be because you are paying more attention to the past. Whatever attention you pay to the past, it is misplaced. Why see yourself in a mirror of the past when there is a mirror right before you now?

What makes the past so precious to you? Soon enough today will be past. Make it precious while it is malleable before you now.

Is a faded bloom more precious than the flower you can pick now? Who says it is? You must say it is. Tomorrow's memory can be today's joy.

No matter how well-preserved the past is, it has been preserved. Fresh fruit is juicy. Do you really feel that dried fruit is worth more than fresh? Drink the fresh juice that today offers. Today is abundant. The past is sparse. An apple tree from the past does not give you fruit to pick today.

What is it, beloveds, that tends to make the past more precious to you than this minute right now? Cannot this very moment be precious as you live it?

What is it that the past offers you that you fear the present does not? Is a bird at hand not worth two in the past? Surely you don't consider Me absent from the present? Do you think life itself mellows more with age? Or that I do?

Beloveds, I am ageless. Life is not cheese that is better aged, nor is it wine better aged. Life is better fresh off the vine.

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Someone I love

What makes the past so precious to you? There is someone I loved with all my heart and soul. Someone I wanted to be happy with and have children with. It didn't work and I had to leave at the time.

What is it, beloveds, that tends to make the past more precious to you than this minute right now? Cannot this very moment be precious as you live it?
This person I loved has repudiated me and moved on as if I never existed. It's been a slow painful moving on for me because from one moment to the next I was castrated out of his existence. I am learning to live in Your Presence as best as I am aware, Father.

What is it that the past offers you that you fear the present does not? Is a bird at hand not worth two in the past? Surely you don't consider Me absent from the present?
I KNOW the past is over and done with!! But this lovely spirit in the one I loved so wholeheartedly is gone from my life and I miss being by his side. I haven't yet succeeded in setting myself free. I have a problem with trust I guess. Please forgive me God.
Johanne

thank you for sharing Johanne...

Thank you so much Johanne for sharing such a difficult and tender topic with all of us. Some things in life, such as the loss you described are very difficult and painful...and it may appear that the pain of this loss will never go away. So many of us have experienced the pain of the loss of another...through death, through divorce...through any number of ways people have left us that were very, very close and dear. And for me...the only true way of healing...is to continually give this grief over to God. To feel the pain...and then give it completely over to God...maybe with a prayer like: Dear blessed Father, of my own self, I know so little, but I am in pain so here...here...take and have my pain...for it no longer serves me or others...this pain, this misery, is not helping me or others or the world...please accept this gift...thank you Lord. Thank you. Remember also, that you may not be ready to part with this heartache...But above all, seek God...be with God...make the Love of God your foremost, primary relationship...and with this, in this, all of the human relationshios will fall into place and purpose. Johanne, thank you so much for sharing this and you will be in my Heart and prayers. Jim.

It helps although I should

It helps although I should not be thanked for writing about it. Gratefulness and thanks to One who LOVES us so much that we have no fear to come to Him "as is". Thank-you Jim for your compassionate response which I very much appreciate. Love and Light to ALL Johanne

Thank you Johanne...

And...loved your phrase: "...come to Him "as is"... this is exquisite...to go to God as we are...not as we would like to be or even as how we would think God would receive us or any other fiction...but just as we are right now. Maybe there is pain...maybe there is confusion or bewilderment...whatever...go to God with all of it...so nice and innocent...no pretense. Blessings...Jim.

ps...I try to go to God with as much as possible...and as simply as possible. One of my "heros" is St. Therese of Lisieux or as she was called "the little flower" cause her way was so simple and innocent and strewn with love-laden rose petals. So pure was her approach...and a holy example for us all.

Johanne, I am in awe of your

Johanne, I am in awe of your openness and Jim's responses.

You have no idea of how many women write in with their hearts broken in this very way. They think they will never get over it.

Of course, eventually, we all do get over it. It is the end of a dream we made up and bestowed on another. It is interesting to me how today's Heavenletter seems to address this very issue of deep disappointment that leaves a big hole in our lives, but not forever.

2 Heavenletter Haikus for

2 Heavenletter Haikus for you

Hello Friends,

God said Beloveds
Accept today as a gift
Made fresh this moment

God said pick today
You can have the real thing now
And make it precious

Love, Light and Aloha!

Powerful thought . . .

Powerful thought . . . wonderful angle of perspective. We do tend to either stray into the future or stay in the past . . . .!!

Good thinking!!

Welcome to Heavenletters,

Welcome to Heavenletters, dear Hari! Past and future are addressed quite frequently in Heaveletters and you will find much food for thought, and more, here. We love to read more of your comments, and if you like, tell us about yourself and your whereabouts.