Friday, February 24, 2012

Past und Future.


How fortunate I am, that I have a past as well as a future, ancestors and descendents.

I have long family tree to look back upon, and three generation that come after me. The past helps to shape the present and the present shapes the future. I know where I come from and can see where the generations that follow me are going too. That gives me a feeling of permanence, of belonging and of continuation. It is a "people" that I feel I belong too. That same "people" has a way of continuing long after the single individual has gone. As an individual I live but a limited time – from birth till death, but the people that I belong to, have lived long before me and will continue to live long after I am gone.

Throughout life I weave into one group or another, contributing from myself as best as I can. It may be from my accumulated knowledge, or it may be from my thoughts and inspiration, as they say in German "Weltanschauung". My doing leaves an in-print in others, the same way that others leave an in-print in me. The world is made for us to live in. Only in a mutual give and take can we exist.

The body time of the individual is limited, but his spirit lives on.

What you make of life is up to you. You have to give it substance and meaning. Giving purpose to your life is up to you. What has happened, has happened, how you cope under different circumstances is up to you.

Feeling is not really remembered, but your interpretation of them is what you remember. You may have had traumatic experiences. How you handle it, how you interpret it or how you shape your life after that experience that is entirely up to you.

Your own wellbeing is only as good as you make it under different circumstances, often difficult ones. Life goes on.

As one of my ancestors said, "The wind and the waves are there, but the steering wheel that will take you to a save harbor, is in your hands".

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