Hey! Pause, look back!
Look back? Back-lookers
Are not forward-movers.
Yes! Yet, every once in a while
It pays to pause and look back
To earn keys to move, away
From a vicious mountain
We’ve circled, unaware
Impulsively, for so long.
Yes, every once in a while
Just pause and look back
Ensure you are truly moving
That you are on the right track.
I agree with Paul on forgetting those things which are behind and pressing on. Yes I believe that looking back often births regrets and can possibly slow our pace and draw us back. And truly I affirm that we should always look up, ahead, because where our focus rests determines our steps, in addition to how soon and how well we get there. Looking one way and going another has fathered preventable accidents. Yet, life has taught me that not every movement depicts progress irrespective of where our eyes are focused.
Some of us are truly stuck and acknowledge that they need help – that is a problem known, which equals a matter half solved. The issue lies with those of us who have convinced ourselves that we are moving, and have credited progress to movement. Truly we are moving but who counts going round the same circle for so long a success? Guess what that says: big problem – aware of the apparent, we are ignorant of the actual. For these, help may be far because they won’t recognize their need though help stands next to them. This a very pitiable position where the majority are stuck, unaware and doing nothing to get out. Ignorance channels well intended efforts toward continuous movement that actually goes no farther from the starting point.
Unfortunately, irrespective of how progressive minded I like to think I am, life showed me up as one of the later. Was that disappointing? Of course but it didn’t leave me there. Revelation breeds release to the teachable. Knowing and accepting that bitter truth handed me the key to get up, get out and truly move in the direction I ought.
Life taught me that every once in a while, it pays to pause, to look back and take inventory otherwise we risk waiting too long and wasting too much. Life taught me that if we don’t pause to reevaluate, we may be swept away by subtleties and never really know it. It also taught me that though these ‘momentary reflections’ may stir regrets we hate to see, yet our cure is hidden in that ugly face we must pause and reckon with no matter how much and how fast we wish to get away. We actually go nowhere when we ignore that bitter truth waiting behind; waiting for us to turn around and find triumph by looking it straight in the eyes no matter the chagrin it stirs.
It is only when we pause that we can look; only when we look that we can see; only when we see that we can own our part in the error that has restrained us from getting away from what we seek to escape; only in owning our part that we learn to amend our ways; and only by amending our ways can we truly move away. The release that comes from that revelation then enables us to see thereafter, whether we look up or forward, to identify the right path that we should walk and in heeding we are located by true not apparent progress. Walk with me, patient as I share next week the result of this life-changing looking-back experience of mine.
Blessings
Glory!