Physical possessions are of the past. Even if you found a stone on the beach today, the stone is the past. Even if you bought a new dress today, the dress is already in the past. It is fair to say that all physical possessions are of the past. The past in whatever form it appears has held great importance to you.
No longer are you to hold on to the past. It never was for you to hold onto, and yet the past has held you in its sway. A glass, a spoon, all hold you to the past. Of course, it is not the past’s fault that you do. The past hasn’t asked you to make it so important that you let it impact your present.
I hear you. I hear you say arthritis runs in the family, and so you make an excuse for your arthritis. Your belief in the past may even have drawn arthritis to you.
You may say that as a child, for self-preservation, you were forced to lie. You may have had no choice then. You have choice now. Never mind what you were taught unless it is beneficial for you and the world now. There is nothing in the past that has to have a hold over you now. The past is over. Be you over the past.
The only way to free yourself from the past is to let go of it. Let go of your attachment to it. Any glass will do to drink from. No matter what crystal a glass is made of, no matter who once drank from it, you don’t have to be stuck to that particular glass. A glass is a glass.
A spoon is a spoon. Any spoon will do. It does not have be precisely this old spoon you are attached to. You can even eat with your fingers. You can drink from the bowl.
A river does not hold on to its past water. A river keeps moving. A river escapes the past because it is ever-flowing.
You may think it is hard to let go of the past. It is holding on to the past that is hard. Letting go of the past is easy, only you have difficulty and ease confused. It is holding on to the past that takes energy and requires effort. Letting go of the past is effortless unless you have convinced yourself otherwise. Letting go is lovely like putting your hands palm-side up. Palm-side up, you are ready to receive. Your hands are open.
The past wants to be let go of. The past doesn’t want to be any more to you than a drop in the bucket. The past wants to be free of you. The past does not want to be held hostage. The past does not want to be accountable for the present. Release the past. Have you nailed yourself to the past?
Do you hold the past accountable for everything that transpires now? I have told you to let go of the idea of cause and effect. You may well have been using the past as an excuse for everything in the present. You may say that the past caused your problems now. In that case, you are making your childhood responsible for how you treat the world now. You blame the circumstances of your birth, your upbringing, the wrongs perpetrated on you, and so you perpetuate them.
It is not in your best interest to contain the past to the degree that you do. The past may have become your fall guy, your stooge, the scapegoat you kick. Let the past retreat. It is the past.