A New Story

I have been reading a rediculous amount lately. I love the culture here in Peru very relaxing. There is always time to do whatever needs to be done. This week I read a book by Paulo Coehlo called The Zahir. It really spoke to my heart about my current state of mind. In the book, the main character meets a young man that tells him that he needs to forget his "story", or his past in order to become who he is. At the same time, I was reading a book by Brennan Manning that implied the same idea about our relationship with God. What spoke to my heart is this:

We need to stop being who we were in order to become who we are.

Though our past experiences have helped shaped who we are, we cannot let them dictate who we are in this present time. It is dangerous to let our past failures and fears control our actions in the present. We need to forget our story and our past and allow today to be today. We need to allow who we are now to decide how we will act or react to what today presents to us.

Each day here is Peru is a new day with new experiences. But as I have said before, you dont have to be in Peru in order to realize that each day is new and has something important to teach us. If I continued to live as I was, or be who I was, I would not have half the amazing experiences I have had so far. I would not have aloud myself to be in some of the situations I have been in that have proved tp be amazing. Why? Because of my part failures and my past fears and my past pride and my past embarrassment.

Today is today and I am who I am today. Not who I was yesterday and not who I will be tomorrow. If we continue to be who we were or allow ourselves to only think about who we will be in the future, we will continue to miss the importance of today. And what else do we really have than today?