By Gonny 
Let’s begin with something simple…….a cup.
Porcelain. White. Maybe a little chipped. You think you’re seeing a cup.
But the Course says: you see only the past !
Is this true? Let’s take a look: I have a cup in my hand: where did I got it? Oh yes, from De Bijenkorf. What am I using it for? To drink my coffee and tea! How do I have to handle it? Carefully, because it is made from porcelain and it can break easily.
I am not seeing the object…I am seeing MY story about it.
And this doesn’t stop with cups. We do it with faces. With names.
With memories that pretend to be truth.
That’s why the Course says:
“You are upset because you see something that is not there.” (W-7.1:8)
We don’t see our partner…we see their past mistakes and successes.
We don’t see a new chance, we see our old failures.
We don’t see ourselfes we see the version we have been rehearsing for years.
But what if none of that is happening now?
What if peace doesn’t come from knowing, but from letting go of what you think you know?
Now, let’s talk about nostalgia. Because sometimes we don’t just carry the past…we worship it:
The good old days. The perfect love that got away. The version of you who still believed.
We play the highlight reel in golden tones.
Even the heartbreak looks cinematic in hindsight.
But nostalgia is just another filter.
Another way of saying:
“I want what was… because I don’t trust what is.”
Yet the Course reminds us:
“The past is gone. It can touch me not.” (W-289)
And what you miss about the past isn’t the thing itself, it’s the openness you once felt, and that… you can feel again.
So here’s the invitation:
When you notice yourself idealizing the past, pause and ask:
Am I remembering, or avoiding?
What if ….what I long for isn’t gone, but waiting for me to be present?
Because everything you truly loved back then, the joy, the connection, the light…..wasn’t in that place…wasn’t in that person….it was always in you.
And it still is.
Drop the filter. Let this moment be new. Even with a cup. Even with a person. Even with yourself.
What you’ll find… is peace.
With love and light,
G.