Looking back to look forward

ACCORDING to one old saying, "There's no point in looking back. You have to look forward." But that assumes that what we build tomorrow will be unrelated to what we attempted before - and that's not true.

It depends how you look back, really. Wallowing in nostalgia may not help with the challenges of today. But a sense of history, of gratitude, of inspiration carried forward, of lessons learned, of friendships made, of wisdom stored, of possibilities nurtured, of gifts harvested, of decisions made and re-made? Those are surely forward-thinking positives.

There's an old Aboriginal tradition which says that you need to "back into the future", because while no-one can quite know what will happen next, you can gain a good sense of direction by looking at what has been shaping the journey so far.

Anyway, that's our excuse for a quick revisiting of the riches of the Festival of Spirituality & Peace in 2010, 2009 and 2008. Hopefully these will give a good flavour of what's in store for 2011: 'Faith, Hope and Reality'.