eternal now

i'm just quoting because i like what paul tillich says here:

*in each human life a struggle is going on about the past. blessings battle with curses. often we do not recognize what are the blessings and what are the curses.
today, in the light of our unconscious strivings, we are more inclined to see curses than blessings in our past. the remembrance of our parents, which in the old testament is so inseperably connected with their blessings, is now much more connected with the curse they have unconsciously and against their will brought upon us.
many of those who suffer under mental afflictions see their past, especially their childhood, only as the source of curses. we know how often this is true. but we should not forget that we would not be able to live and face the future if there were not blessings that support us and which come from the same sources as the curses. a pathetic struggle over their past is going on almost without interruption in many men and women of our time. no medical healing can solve this conflict, because no medical healing can change the past.
only a blessing that lies above the conflict of blessing and curse can heal. it is the blessing that changes what seems to be unchangeable -- the past. it cannot change the facts; what has happened has happened and remains so in all eternity!
but the meaning of the facts can be changed by the eternal, and the name of this change is the experience of "forgiveness".
if the meaning of the past is changed by forgiveness, its influence on the future is also changed.
the character of curse is taken away from it. it becomes a blessing by the transforming power of forgiveness.