It’s In The Past

This past weekend our dog Tom committed suicide.  I don’t mean that literally, as in he intended to die, I doubt dogs think like that.  But we took him to the dog park, and while we weren’t paying attention he ate quite a bit of grass.  The grass stopped him up and he couldn’t cough it up and all of a sudden he died.  It was horrible and I blamed myself for it.  I didn’t take his situation seriously as he was trying to couch up the grass, until it was too late.  I’m not sure what I could have done, but I felt like I should have done something.  It’s probably not a realistic guilt, we live far from the nearest emergency vet and by the time we realized it was a problem and could have gotten him there he still would have died.  But I carried and carry that guilt of not having done something.  I’m working through it, because that’s what one should do.  Feeling guilt for things is very normal – unless you don’t have a conscience.  But if you’ve done all you can to deal with the situation, done due diligence, made amends, perhaps paid it back, it’s time to let go.  One of my favorite quotes is from Rafiki in the Lion King.  He whacks young Simba with his staff and when Simba asks why, Rafiki says, “it doesn’t matter, it’s in the past”.  This is I think the sagest of wisdom, let things go, they’re in the past.  True sometimes your past can haunt you, and if a situation is ongoing it may not be possible to put it behind you yet.  And maybe you learned a lesson from whatever it is that haunts you, but when you can, let it go (from another Disney film).  Llearn the lesson, live in the now, look forward to the promise of the future, but put the ghosts behind you, “it’s in the past”.