Past imperfect

The past has a funny way of rising up to meet us. Issues and anxieties thought long since left to dust are found reanimated and hiding in the quiet recesses of the present, waiting to infect the day.

In a way, the past is a vampire.

It rises from its rightful resting place to drain us, feeding on the moment, leaving only an anemic shell of the now. The past can steal the blush of the present. And it just won’t stay dead.

Mistakes, missteps and mishaps; accidents, betrayals and tragedies; old debts and old flames; bad decisions and overwhelming failures-- all these things are out there, just waiting to trip us up when we start feeling too comfortable.

The reason we can never fully rid ourselves of these monsters is because they make us who we are. They ushered us into the skin we now inhabit, and that gives them license to stop by, uninvited, whenever they might choose.

Whether your past-vampire (it’s a phrase now, I’m copywriting it) is a bad credit score, a crappy ex, a loss you can’t move on from or a few too many beers before driving, it’s the bad parts of a life that shape us most dramatically. They teach us appreciation, patience, endurance and the importance of forgiveness. And like anything valuable, these lessons come with a high price.

The only real question is when do we get to stop paying.