The other morning, as I sat upon my bed, pen at your fingertips and journal in my lap doing a few things i do most mornings, write down my thoughts and capture morning musings, my attention was diverted to some large dredge ship that went slowly past my window. It drifted into my field of vision and caught attention, as do most ships that overlook our home in the shipping channel behind us. They are huge and rather difficult to miss, the deep rumbling sound of the engines warn of these approach long before they're seen; their massive size fills the entire view from our window. This kind of morning it was a speed boat even more slow than the others as it chugged along doing it's work cleaning the channel. - LED Dredge Lights
A dredge ship is really quite small as opposed to other ships that regularly sail through behind us because channel. It doesn't require assistance of tug boats just as other large ships and freighters since it drifts through the channel, slowly doing its work clearing up the silt and sludge from the bottom of the waterway.
I watched it chug along, slowly and purposefully. It passed so slowly i was able to capture a picture of it. As I focused upon the ship, the language "Dredge up the past" floated into my consciousness; an interesting idea to ponder and talk about. It is what I do, take events that report up in everyday life and see them in writing!
But what did this mean to me? Why would that filter into my consciousness at that very moment? I would suppose it absolutely was the word DREDGE, which, all things considered the ship was doing exactly that, dredging up the past, stirring up the old, built up sludge and clearing it. I stood there watching the ship pass and wondered exactly what the word really meant to me and initially another word floated into my head... the word dread. Somehow dredge and dread were connected.
I am certain I'm not the only one who thinks so. The idea of dredging something up seems heavy and dreary; a thing that we would dread. Yet is it, or better yet, must it be? I think not...
I discovered myself asking a few key questions... "Okay self, so why do I equate dredging up the past with dread?"
Is my past really all that dark, painful or dreadful?
Do I only dredge up past hurts, misgivings or failings and rehash them as though they were still present today? Am I unable to let them go and move ahead?
Are the voices in my head telling me the truth as they say over and over which i screwed up or could have done better? Who is that yacking away as if the news was so important it needed to be recorded in the annals of history?
Do I regret certain moments during my life and avidly wish I could have a "do-over"?
When I am reminded of my past is it with pleasure and happiness or should i more often than not find it is with discomfort, sadness or regret?
Goodness, seems pretty darned heavy doesn't it? And again, I am aware I am not alone. We have heard this exact thing from clients, friends and family members too. Why is it that we dredge in the past with such heaviness and misgivings? What happened to those happy moments?
I do believe it depends on your nature whether you dredge with dread or with pleasure; regardless of whether you do so with zeal or angst. For many of us it is a family pattern, like it's imprinted inside our DNA. However, I also believe that we all have areas of our past we'd just rather forget ever happened but often those are the things we are going to replay in our heads over and over or others gladly emphasize them!
If you are much like me and you naturally or habitually dredge increase past with dread or apprehension, what about instead you approach your past just like the dredge ship approaches the sludge, mud and silt? It's sole purpose and job would be to clean it up; to create forth the earth from the bottom of the channel and remove it. It is a powerful machine that removes the unwanted and destructive, leaving in the wake a clean, purified, clear waterway. It uses whatever tools it must get the job done and will it.
What if we took on the powerful stance like the ship? After all we too are powerful machines (human machines) and we have the power and skill to stir up, bring it forth, face the facts and clean it up! Ignore it. Release it forever, plus it's wake, leave an obvious, clean, purified pathway. You can forget dread. No more heaviness. - LED Dredge Lights