Sometimes the past returns without announcing itself.
A word.
A voice.
A familiar silence.
Something happens in the present, and suddenly we are feeling something much older.
We may no even recognize it at first.
The body remembers what the mind has learned to live beyond.
And for a moment, what happened long ago can feel as though it is happening again.
We begin responding not only to what is before us, but to what once stood in its place.
There is wisdom is recognizing this.
The echo is not our enemy.
It may carry grief that was never heard, fear that once protected us, or a part of ourselves still waiting to be understood.
We do not have to turn away from it.
But neither must we surrender the present to it.
Perhaps this is another way of standing in the Gap.
To hear what the past is saying without allowing it to speak for everyone standing before us now.
Each of us has our own echoes.
The past deserves to be heard.
But the present deserves to be seen.
Perhaps healing begins when we can honor both without confusing one for the other.
— a reflection by Corvalva
Return to The Echo.
Notice what shifts.