Looking Forward and Backward

Looking Forward and Backward
JOSHUA 4: 1- 5: 1

Yesterday I was comparing notes with a woman who lost her father the same month I lost my wife. She mentioned that her mother wasn’t prepared to look forward, to imagine what the future would be like, and was only prepared to look backward, to remember what had been, whereas the woman herself was interested in looking forward, not looking backward. “I’m with your mother!” I said, to her slight consternation. The conversation helped me understand the question a therapist friend had asked me, about what new things I thought I might now do. It just seemed an odd question. I was more interested in looking to the past, in remembering, in recapturing the past (I have just put on the wall next to my desk some photos of Ann from the years before she was disabled). Now I realize that it was a natural question for some people, but not for me at the moment. Both anticipation and remembering are important. People like me who are inclined to remember are to be affirmed but also encouraged to anticipate; people who are inclined to live in the future are to be affirmed but they also need to be encouraged to reclaim the past...