Forget And Not Slow Down

"I'd rather forget and not slow down
Than gather regret for the things I can't change now."

The plan is to spend the next few days running through Forget And Not Slow Down, my favorite Relient K album.  It's funny what they say about music helping the soul.  The lyrics can describe what we always wanted to say and make us feel that everything is all right.  Songs capture moods.  They can inspire us to be great amidst turmoil or to relax in times of trouble.  They can encourage us to dance gaily during the joyous days and can even make us cry when the time is right.  In 2009, this album helped me through some of the toughest times of my young life.  I thought my worldview was going to be irrevocably shattered.  I didn't think I'd be able to move on, and didn't even know if I wanted to.  But some incredible friends, the book of Proverbs, and this album (to name just three things) helped me immensely.  I moved on, as I always was going to.  But it's the grace and civility with which I was able to advance my life that was so cool.  For whatever reason, I'm thinking about the album once more.

"It's time to decide
Which is out of my mind,
Because it'll be me unless I put my thoughts to rest and leave some faults behind."

There's a lot clunking around in the ol' skull.  I think this is true of many of us.  It's painfully easy to be guilty of overthinking.  Maybe we just need to forget.  Make that conscious decision to throw out those things that are bogging us down and move on.  Life is going to continue coming at us whether we approach it with open arms or try to jump out of the way to avoid it.  If these are our two options, wouldn't we at least attempt to make it as easy as we can?  Fighting something that we will ultimately lose to everytime seems silly.  Embrace the change, the future, and the promise that the next minute, hour, day, and years can bring. 

"I can spend my life just trying to sift through
What I could have done better but what good do what ifs do?"

What good is a "what if?"  We can't change the past.  The only thing we can affect is our future.  We should be constantly looking ahead to what's next.  Living in the past will only fill us with regret and remorse.  Yes, of course it is crucial to learn from past mistakes, but we can only apply what we have learned to future situations.  We can't slow down.  Moving on and brushing away life's sour patches is an ideal that is rarely achieved but should be endlessly pursued.  Think of the joy and encouragement we can bring to ourselves and, by extension, those around us when we choose to not let the past bother us.  If we throw away that which can bring us down.  A "what if" is just that...a "what if."  It's a rhetorical question.  It can't be answered with any definitiveness.  The only way to atone for past mistakes is to embrace the future.

"If I become what I can't accept,
Resurrect the saint from within the wretch.
Pour over me and wash my hands of this."

Maybe forgiveness is the key here.  Perhaps we have devolved into something unacceptable.  With forgiveness we can march onward.