When the Past Comes Knocking
When the past comes knocking at the door, how do we answer?
Do we open it with curiosity - or brace ourselves, hoping it goes away?
Do we run, numb, or lash out from the emotions long tucked away?
Or are we willing to pause… and listen?
Not to blame. Not to fix. But to understand why it’s here.
Because it always comes with a reason.
Not to punish, but to free.
The past doesn’t return because we failed - it returns because we’ve grown.
Because we are ready to see something new, feel something differently, or take an action that we couldn’t before.
Life doesn’t move in a straight line. It spirals. And as we rise on that spiral, we pass by old experiences - but from a new height, with new eyes.
Maybe that’s what healing is. Not forgetting, but arriving again - more awake.
Lately I’ve asked myself, What is this door I just opened here to show me?
And the answer, as always, brings me back to the self.
There’s a tenderness that surfaces first. A recognition of all the times I didn’t listen to what I knew inside. Times I said yes when my whole being whispered no. When I chose comfort, familiarity, or the needs of others over the quiet knowing within me.
And still, I meet that part of me now not with shame - but with gratitude.
Because I’m not who I was then.
Neither are you.
This is the beauty of awareness: we evolve.
Even when the first feeling is disappointment or sorrow, we can also feel the gift of growth. That deeper voice—the one that once was muted - is now louder. Clearer. And it's being honored.
When the past returns, it’s not to keep us stuck. It’s to help us soften what’s still clenched inside. To move energy. To open space. To feel, finally, what we couldn’t hold back then.
It’s not always about doing. Sometimes it’s about being present with what rises.
The grief. The clarity. The release. The choice.
And in that presence, we reclaim power.
We step forward - not dragging the past behind us like an anchor, but using it as a stepping stone toward greater love, truth, and self-trust.
So when something old returns, ask not why again?
But what now?
What new freedom is ready to unfold?
With love,
Susan