There’s a familiar image of an ostrich burying its head in the sand when danger approaches. The belief is that, by refusing to acknowledge what’s in front of it, the danger somehow ceases to exist.
Of course, this is little more than a myth. But perhaps there’s something rather human about the image.
There are things we know we should confront, yet somehow find ourselves putting off. The conversation we’ve been avoiding. The mistake we haven’t quite come to terms with. The uncomfortable feeling that something in our lives isn’t quite right.
Sometimes, it’s easier not to look. We carry on, find something else to occupy our attention—work, responsibilities, the endless stream of other people’s lives on a screen—and tell ourselves we’ll deal with it eventually.
And for a while, that seems to work.
And sometimes, life does become easier to live with. An absence becomes familiar. The sharpness of an experience begins to soften. But time passing isn’t necessarily the same as coming to terms with something.
We can become so accustomed to our circumstances that we never really stop to consider what they’ve changed in us, or what they might have taught us.
And perhaps that’s what reflection is really for. It’s how we make sense of what we’ve experienced, recognise what matters, and allow those experiences to influence the person we become.
The ostrich cannot confront what’s threatening it with its head buried in the sand. Neither can we.
At some point, we have to lift our heads, face what has happened, and allow ourselves to be changed by it. Otherwise, we’re not really moving on. We’re simply moving past.