#67: Connect with someone from your past.

Date Completed: 8/18/2010

“Out with the old, in with the new.” All year I’ve been decluttering, reorganizing, refocusing and trying to bring about positive change in my life. At times, I’ve felt as if I was purging the past and creating the future. Seems like a positive experience, right? Well, I had all the right intentions, but, this particular item reminded me how special the past can actually be, whether it’s revisiting memories, remembering lessons learned or possibly changing a perspective. When I added this item to my list, I had no idea how thankful I would be for having done so.

As with most of the items on THE LIST, I didn’t plan to mark this one off yet. I had not identified a specific individual. I had no real goal to achieve. I just wanted to have an opportunity to meet someone new this year (#33 on THE LIST) and also look back. Part way through my evening (and as we were talking about THE LIST), it crossed my mind that this event did actually qualify for this list item. The evening actually couldn’t have been nicer. The discussion did not revolve around history - the focus was the present and even the future - but it was shared with someone special from my past and someone whom I’m happy to have had the opportunity to spend time with in the present. I genuinely believe that life has a way of unfolding exactly as it should…even when it doesn’t quite feel that way in the moment. This experience was a perfect example. Some pieces of the past deserve a special place in your heart, because you never know when they'll move into the present, or even the future.