Anchors Aweigh!

I was listening to an NPR segment on a South African musician who commented that our past is what keeps us anchored to who we are. In many ways, our past keeps us anchored to things that are detrimental to us, especially when we become anchored to our failures and flaws, our past mistakes. There can be problems in defining ourselves by our past. The trite saying of, "Let go and let God," comes to mind. Mostly, it comes to mind with the understanding that very few of us find the ability within ourselves to let go, to give up our past to anyone, much less God. After all, it is ours.

The thought then struck me, that as long as we are anchored to that past, we can never escape it. If we were anchored somewhere else, our identity would no longer originate from that past. We could move on, and it would no longer drag behind us like, well...an anchor.