Editing Life

Editing Life

I found myself sitting at the computer the other day editing photos.

During the session I rotated photos that were not upright, I color corrected the dull ones and deleted any that I didn’t want to keep. There were some that I cropped to eliminate unwanted people or background. I put them into categories so that I could find and watch them in a slide show later. When I was satisfied I closed the program and went on to other things.

Not long after I finished, my mind began to form an idea, I began to see a comparison with my photo session and how I have edited the things in my life.

We all do.

Its the way humans are able to find form and reason with the experiences that we have each day.

Selective memory is what I call it.

When I am focused on doing the best I can, I decide on what I want to experience at the beginning of each day then review at the end of the day how well I did.

There are always variables to consider and the unexpected events that seem to surprise me but all in all I find each day fulfilling.

OK, there are those times that things don’t go as expected and I end up in a whole different direction with unexpected results. 

When those kind of things happen, I edit.

I mean, don’t you?

Selective Memory, it is a convenient way to forget the not so good experiences and focus on the good stuff.

Come on, admit it.

We all do it.

I do.

We take the programs of life and erase the bad stuff, color correct the dull scenes, crop out the people, experiences or events that have made our life so miserable and highlight the good stuff.

Sometimes that is the best approach, but just as likely, it may be a good thing to remember the bad shots so we don’t make the same mistakes again.

If I were to completely wipe all unpleasant memories I would have lost a mountain of learning experiences and the life lessons would be lost.

No, I don’t think I will wipe all memories, but some selective editing is probably a good thing in all our lives and along with that photo editing we should add a prospective and dialogue to help us should we have a similar experience show up again.

Life lessons … they are important to pay attention to.

Without a perspective on how actions affect our lives we could repeat things over and over, a kind of Groundhog day.

When I see the same experience in my life again, I eventually get around to asking myself, what is it that I have missed?

Did I not learn the lesson of that life event?

It is always easier to see others and their challenges than it is to see our own.

Often the hardest thing to do is to admit our own mistakes.

Don’t be so hard on yourself. 

Don’t be so quick to judge yourself wrongly.

Allow the experience to be processed by your inner soul and allow the lesson to be merged into your life stream.

Editing photos or life comes with the road of life. 

Before we act, it would be wisdom to see how each has added to the rich fullness of our everyday experience. It is entirely up to us how we color, crop, enhance or eliminate entirely the experience.

But the very act of deleting unpleasant parts of our life can cheat us of the richness of life here on planet Earth.

After all, what would life be with only the good stuff? 

We wouldn’t have a comparison to learn from.