The Past

We all have one, some better than others but how it affects our future is up to us. I have uploaded more pictures onto my facebook page. My daughter has a huge box of old photo's that I didn't bring out to Vegas with me. A couple of months ago I sent her a prepaid priority medium box and she stuffed as much as she could in the box and sent them to me.

I so love looking at old pictures. They bring up such good memories for me. Some of them, aren't my favorites but I still keep them. I just don't look at them.

We need to treat our past like that. Go through your memories and pick out your best ones and remember them, like the day at the amusement park or a birthday party of a good friend, a wedding, a family gathering. This is specially a good exercise when your day isn't going as well as you'd like.

I have a picture of me and my best friend on my night stand. It was taken the day we met and every time I look at that I smile. I can look at that picture and go through the progression of our friendship. Laura is a wonderful person to focus on when my day isn't going right.

And a month or so ago I got a hold of another friend from my past. She and I haven't spoken in 10 years, just life got in the way and I was such a gypsy. But now we have reconnected. She and I had some rough times, but we have so put those aside and remembered only the good in our past.

One day, when you have the time to yourself and you are in a good mood, take the time to go through your past. When you come to a rough part of your past, acknowledge it but let it go. Don't dwell on it. We can benefit ourselves more by letting the good times be the ones in the forefront of our minds and hearts.

You do this when you are in a good mood because at that time you are usually more able to dwell briefly on that rough patch and let it go. If you are already upset, then you'll probably grab onto it and fall into that bad time.

So arm yourself with some happy, good thoughts as weapons for your bad days. And if you do have a bunch of old pictures go through them. I promise you will laugh and smile and feel the warmth of those moments.

One of my favorite pics on my facebook is my senior high school graduation picture. (that's the one on here) I look at that now - 30 years later - and say wow, could I have ever been that young? High school wasn't the best time of my life, but with that picture I can look back at it and pick out the highlights.

I love technology these days, with a scanner and a computer you can take priceless pictures and preserve them for forever. I had one picture taken at an old timey saloon place at an amusement park, it was looking pretty rough but a little adjustment and it looks wonderful.

Think of your memories like that too, maybe they start off a little rough, but if you look at and through them, you'll find that with a little adjustment, maybe it wasn't as rough as you thought.