Ghosts From My Past
Little did I realize my new website (www.glennsasscer.com) might awaken ghosts from my past - an old friend sent me an email. As we consider who we are, many may claim we are a product of our environment, and as such, a product of our pasts and experiences. We are whom we are due to how we have lived our lives and the events happening to us in our history.
Ghosts of the nature to which I am referring, wherever and whomever they may be, live dormant in our memories yet remain a permanent part of our lives. Even the bad ghosts (or memories) serve a purpose for healing, for making us stronger, and allowing us to gain confidence in overcoming the ‘bad ghost memories’.
Fortunately, this ghost was a good ghost memory, and while our exchange was short, the encouragement should be long lasting. I met this ghost when we were both young, dumb, and immature - her, not so much, me… well, let’s say I kept the average for young, dumb, and immature in the lower range of the ranking.
I found encouragement in knowing her testimony. She found her faith in God, she found a good husband, she works in a career she enjoys, and she is addressing the ghosts in her past. I was one of them for her.
Too often, we accept the motto from the Lion King, where Pumba and Timon suggest “…put your past behind you…”, just before breaking into a song where a young Simba becomes an older Simba right before your eyes. While this may work well for a cartoon warthog and meerkat, eventually the cartoon Simba had to face his past to address his future. To fully realize and accept himself as a king, he had to fully realize and accept who he was in the past.
In reality, our past influences who we are today much more than we often realize. Waking the ghosts from our past is a way of embracing and accepting ourselves instead of pretending we are someone different, untouched by history, or self-created. Suppressing or hiding our memories away, keeping a lid on our ghosts, or denying our past is denying who we are today.
While some painful memories do not need to be dragged out into the light every day, addressing the pain of these memories is good therapy to bring about healing in current relationships, actions, and reactions. Once we address the pain, the ghost no longer has power over us and does not need to be chained up, locked away, or feared.
I know this is easier said than done, but the freedom is worth it. And, with liberation, we open the door and move on… with life.
As a writer, the ghosts and events from my past provide a complete library of potential characters, plots, events, or even simple catch phrases. Awakening the ghosts stirs a pot of creativity, bringing a robust life to my novels or short stories. Add to the pot of creativity the ghosts of my wife’s past, stories friends are telling me, and just the new take on life my children provide every day, and we have a mixture of characters and stories just waiting for their chance in the spotlight.
My encouragement to you, dear reader, is to embrace the ghosts of your past… not just the nostalgic, feel good, all warm and fuzzy ghosts and memories, but also the ones locked in the dungeons of our thoughts and chained up in the closets of our pasts. Yes, you may need to forgive. Yes, there may be pain. Yes, it may hurt. And yes, it may not be pleasant, but liberation and freedom comes with a cost. Forgiving the past instead of denying the past brings a reward beyond explanation in a few words on a blog.
My thanks to you many ghosts for making me who I am today, and my thanks to my God for using them.
Glenn Sasscer
www.glennsasscer.com
