History

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History is the past; its study; its line of events. Pretty much in any way you look at it, it is a ‘has been’.
The question then becomes whether we just drop the subject. After all, it seems much more profitable to live in the present, to be aware of the present. To be ‘mindful’ in the ‘now’.

If we would go along with that line of thought, then anything that already has happened becomes unimportant. Live, learn and move on.
Letting go of the past.
From that same perspective, one might even say that when we would put any importance at all on things from the past ~ even history ~ it would get (at least part of ourselves) stuck in that past. And this then would be especially true for objects from the past that we may find ourselves holding on to, although it would certainly also be true for perspectives and attitudes from the past.

It is an interesting thing, the past.
On one hand we don’t want to get in a position where we live and re-live our history over and over again. So it stands to reason that observing our history with a critical eye is a good thing.
On the other hand it is also true that our history ~ whether that is our family history, our cultural history or even the history of world events ~ can get us in touch with our roots. It can show us where we have come from. Where we have been and what steps we have taken that have brought us here, today.
It can show us how far we have come.

Looking at it that way, holding on to some things from the past may be related to the respect we have for the steps we have taken…

The only thing to watch out for is that, while it is a good thing to know our roots, to be aware where we have come from and how much we have achieved since that time in some (sometimes very distant) past ~ we are living our lives right now!

And from that perspective our history is linked to our future (would that be ‘herstory’).
Making plans for our future is a good thing. Working towards a goal which may even be a couple of years out in the future can be quite productive, and we may even have some kind of object or token that helps us, or reminds us, where we want to go.
As long as we realize that the only way to get there is to live life right now.
In this very moment…
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