If you could relive one year of your life, which one would it be?
On 21 August 2026, WordPress posed a simple question to its bloggers: “If you could relive one day from the past, which one would you choose?”
Some have since reframed it as one year — but the difference, for me, is none at all. My answer then is my answer now: I would not trade one day of my present for any day of my past. And certainly not one year.
What is already written holds no allure compared with what remains unwritten. The past is fixed; the future is fertile ground. To return to yesterday is to borrow from today’s light — and tomorrow’s promise.
Why not? Because what happened is known, but what has yet to come to pass is full of possibilities for me to venture into. Whether joyful or painful, the past is gone. Today is reality. And a better tomorrow depends entirely on today’s conditions. To relive yesterday would risk dimming the brightness of today — and of tomorrow.
Furthermore, a desire to relive the glorious days is hopeless, but to live a better tomorrow is hopeful. With yesterday as a living teacher, I stand a better chance to strive and thrive.
Take me as an example. I have had quite a successful career, and therefore dwelling in those awesome days would be tempting. But I have thrown myself wholly into revealing the new me, rather than reviewing the old self; actively discovering a new book, one after another, rather than repeating outdated journals.
Marking time in the glorious parade would, however, be at the risk of losing time to explore and discover. Likewise, dwelling in yesterday’s power, status, and wealth would not enrich — but would inhibit — my growth in Christ.
So I do not relive. I do not hold on to the past. But I live — following the living God, heading towards the perfect Home.
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“Forget It”
If honeyed yesterdays you keep,
Today’s own sweetness falls asleep.
If old wounds fade from memory’s chart,
Today’s load lightens in the heart.
What weighs us down is now, not then—
We pay our peace with sweat and pen.
But he who gazes back too long
Will find his forward step is wrong.
Let go the past; let new air stream—
Release the known, embrace the dream.
Walk towards a world yet unbegun—
Where endings close, and all’s rerun
Not as before, but made anew—
The old complete, the fresh in view.
—
What about you?
If you could relive one day — or one year — would you take it?
Or have you, too, learned that the best view of yesterday is through the windscreen, not the rearview mirror?
—
en yan hua fang 