When I was young, I was self-conscious about everything that happened.
Each action seemed so earth-shakingly important, so life-changing.

With the perspective of age, I see that life is very forgiving.

That we all make mistakes and blunders, but few of them are life-changing.

Most of the things that happen in our lives are merely blips on the screen of life, of no consequence. We’ll look back one day and think “oh yeah, I did that, now I remember.”
Or even “I don’t remember that.”

So be done with it is good advice.

When night falls, it’s good to remind ourselves of the day’s events,
learn what we can from them, and let them go,
so that when dawn breaks, we can start a new day serenely.

Serenely. And with too high a spirit to be encumbered…. I love that.

Emerson was such a sage, wasn’t he?