On looking back

The two little birds sat in a tree on a bare branch overlooking my studio. 
I don’t think they knew I could hear them: 
“I was told never ever ever do it,” the smaller one said. 
“But how will you know how far you’ve come?” asked the other, as she wiggled her tailfeathers in the cold morning.

“Don’t look back because you’re not moving that direction.” “How can you move forward if you keep re-reading the last chapter.” “Okay, go ahead and look back but don’t stare.” • So many hackneyed cliches. Yes, if thinking in the linear, the past has already happened, and sure, all life is lived in the present. But without looking back as well as up ahead, orientation sure becomes wildly challenging, doesn’t it? 

Photo: I’m looking back with gratitude at my very first “studio” (a wedge of my garage in Bend, OR), and so appreciative of the places I’ve been, the people I’ve met, and the life I’ve lived between then and now.