As we get older, if we’re lucky, if we’re brave enough – strong enough –
to look at these things from our past, to really, really sit with them, and to examine the consequences as we look out at the wake that we leave behind us through our lives, we begin to realize how we’ve affected others. 

And sometimes, the desire to make amends comes about. 

Not everybody wants an apology.  Sometimes, our apologies are good, true, honest things, and other times, we just want to be left off the cross.  But nobody can really do that for us; that’s something we have to do for ourselves.

And so, what’s left, then, is what’s referred to as a living amend:
looking honestly at what we’ve done – the effects of our actions –
and deciding, “I will not do that again,”

and doing our damnedest not to…

If you’d like to see more, please check out the latest episode of my podcast, “Putting it on the wind,” on YouTube: