God said:

Naturally, We don’t want to emphasize difficulties. Naturally, We want Our attention to be on all the Goodness the world offers, and that you offer to the world, and that I offer to you.

My beloveds, you are indeed aware that the past is something to let go of, the blessed past and the disagreeable past, both. To hold on to them means a longing that you cannot fulfill. The past is over, and now you want to be done with it and roam in new pastures. The past cannot come back to you.

Of course, it is easy to say: “Let go of the past.” Yet it is not so easy to do.

There are times you would give anything to have the past back. Perhaps Christmas or Thanksgiving at your childhood home in years long past.

There are times you would love to never think of again that were unhappy for you. One time could have been Christmas when you were left out. There could have been a Thanksgiving Day when you were hungry.

Recalling the good times and the bad times equally remind you of a sense of loss. A sense of loss is a sense of loss. When you relive the loss now, you make it present, and so your sense of loss makes you a victim. You relive and carry on a tradition of victimhood. No matter how sweet you may find parts of the past or how bitter, you set yourself aside as a victim. It is poor you who has such beautiful memories now and it is also poor you who had painful experiences back then and somehow now have held on to, perhaps as a badge you wear, perhaps a button that says: “Poor me. Woe is me.”

Marilyn in Xeni, Nemiah Valley with an old russel fence behind her.

Morgan Erickson-Davis, Mongabay
Waking Times

Marilyn Baptiste, 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize winner for North America, led the Xeni Gwet’in community in defeating one of the largest proposed gold and copper mines in British Columbia that would have destroyed Fish Lake—a source of spiritual identity and livelihood for the Xeni Gwet’in. Photo courtesy of the Goldman Environmental Prize.Marilyn Baptiste, 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize winner for North America, led the Xeni Gwet’in community in defeating one of the largest proposed gold and copper mines in British Columbia that would have destroyed Fish Lake—a source of spiritual identity and livelihood for the Xeni Gwet’in. Photo courtesy of the Goldman Environmental Prize.

When a huge open-pit mine threatened a pristine lake and surrounding forest in British Columbia, Canada, Marilyn Baptiste jumped into action, spearheading efforts to collect environmental impact data and even physically turning away construction crews. Because of her efforts, the Canadian government rejected the mine, leaving wild a part of the Canadian Rockies upon which First Nations communities have depended for generations. Today, Baptiste was honored for her work when she was presented the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize at a ceremony in San Francisco.