What is a 'sin' anyway?

My sunset chasing this week has taken me on some inadvisable adventures - but adventures that I shall not erase nonetheless. I have learnt to always trust my instinct - that is with the exception of the inevitability of the lack of trust I can place in my 'internal GPS'. In this case, I have learnt to always trust Google Maps... And at the very least, I must remember where the car was parked! Under no circumstances must I lead my good friends blindly into the dark...

It is now September (unbelievably) and summer is indeed over. Work is picking up - I am meeting new students and clients, attending training, thinking about conferences, thinking about the coming academic year, and thinking even more about the emails I haven't yet replied to and wondering why some get a response from me within five minutes yet others are sat there in my inbox, static for days on end. There is something strange yet liberating about working around the academic year - and that is that this time of year for me feels more of a 'new year' than January ever does. 

I just caught sight of an article entitled 'how to erase the sins of a well-lived summer'. And my first response was 'goodness - why on earth would one ever consider erasing all that is good in their heart?' My assumption here is that 'well-lived' implies something positive, but my initial response has not changed much. I can certainly say that I have had a well-lived summer, and in the very nature of something being lived, there has been no 'sin' in sight. A sin being something of immoral intent in which we feel eaten alive by remorse and guilt, si? Or simply an act that another human being frowns upon from behind the fenced off boundaries of their own lives? Either way, I am not sure that anything we have fully lived can ever be erased; not really - not that I believe in a true 'sin' anyway. Not even if a little guilt emerges. Not even if we have acquired a small scar or wrinkle. Not if we have loved and let go. Not if we have made decisions and life is in the process of change. Have we not realised by now that life is ALWAYS in the process of change? And we are always changing with it; changing and emerging and learning more. If we erase where we have been, how will we ever understand the meaning of where we are? All that has been well-lived is good - and all that has been good over these past few months is securely anchored in my being. It will move forward with me. I shall not erase.. I shall probably also continue to seek the sunsets, to get lost, and to discover the new.