I stood in my back garden this morning listening to the birds sing. I closed my eyes. I could feel the beginnings of a new day. The bird songs reminded me that each day begins anew and that the coming of a new day is a time of celebration in which we get another opportunity to drink from the fountain of life.

I took a long soulful sip of my coffee and felt the warmth travel through me. As I stood there reflecting on the recent events in my life, I realised how easy it could be to waddle in self-pity and doubt, to become stuck in the past, reliving the events over and over again in my mind, playing a game of second guessing. We cannot change our past; we cannot erase our history. What we can do is learn from our experiences, take what is useful and discard the rest. Cherish the good memories and use them to warm our hearts and loosen the knots that sometimes bind our minds to the dark and cynical parts of the past.