Secret Atonement

Part and parcel of living is that we can often give way to personal crucifixion when things go wrong. That’s when the ‘what ifs’ and ‘if only’ thoughts tend to invade our psyche, and we beat ourselves up for all the things we should have done, and didn’t do better. But that’s life, and life for even the most successful of us, is full of regrets.

Self-scrutiny can work in two ways. It sets the stage that allows us to beat ourselves up for past failures, and robs us not only of the life we must continue, but also of the self-esteem necessary to continue that life. Self-scrutiny is the one thing that has the capacity to render us vulnerable, to cripple our future, and opens us up to a feeling of failure that serves no-one.

But what if we could choose an alternative pathway, if we could find the courage and the inspiration to paint for ourselves a brand-new life, where we are the mainstay, the anchor in rebuilding the lives of others? What too, if on that same journey, we could find the secret to healing and fulfillment?