everything happens for a reason

Past mistakes. Funny how, when put together, those two words can conjure up feelings within people that they would rather die than re-experience. As human beings, we like to think that we've got things down, that we know how to deal. But do we really? Is it really ever possible to completely let go of your past?

To tell you the truth, I'm not so sure anymore. But the past isn't the word that I want to focus on. What I'm talking about is mistakes. We make them every day whether we realize it or not. And throughout our lives, each and everyone of us will have a handful of very profound, life-altering mistakes that we have to live with. It's just the way the world works, and it shows us how very fragile life can be. When it comes down to it, you really have to think about how easy it is.

People unintentionally create life and unintentionally destroy life all the time. But it's what happens in between that really matters. It's how you handle the situation, and the lessons you learn in spite of it. Regardless of how you feel about yourself, the sun is still going to rise every morning, and the world will still expect you to move with it. No matter how hard you try, you can't stay in one place forever.

Eventually, you have to realize that whatever happened -even though it may or may not have been based off of poor judgment- was still just a mistake. No matter how much you 'what-if' and 'that was so stupid of me', there's still nothing you could have done about it.. because everything happens for a reason.

Whether it be something grand like finding the love of your life or winning the lottery, or whether it's something painful like losing a loved one or ruining a relationship, there's still a reason behind it.

I think the reason why people get so fed up with the "everything happens for a reason" saying is because most the time they can't see the reason for it happening. They're too concerned with worrying themselves over what they could have done differently to change the outcome that they completely overlook how the mistake affects the rest of the world. And I'm not saying that all reasons are pleasant ones, because obviously they're not.

But even if the reason isn't a good one, it's still a reason and it still serves some greater purpose that most of us will never comprehend.

I'm not saying that I'm an advocate of painful things happening just because they serve a greater purpose down the road, because personally I think that sucks. I wish that everything always had a good outcome, but hey, doesn't everyone?

I'm just starting to deal with the fact that no matter what, there's nothing that ANY OF US can do about what mistakes we may have made in the past, so we shouldn't let them continue to dictate the course of our lives. And most of all, we shouldn't judge each other because of them. I don't care what happened in your past.

I'm certain there were some horrible things that caused you massive amounts of pain, and that makes my heart ache to think about. But nothing that you did no matter what it was is going to have any barring on how I'm going to let myself feel about you.

I don't care about your past, I don't care about your mistakes, I care about you and the person you are this very moment. After all, if you really think about it, isn't life just a bunch of moments? That's the way I see things.

Therefore, anything that isn't happening right this second doesn't exist in my book. I'm not running from the past..

I'm just letting it be what it is; the past.