This season brings us face to face with the temporal nature of humanity —our flaws, faults and frailties. Regardless of the weight our wrongdoings may carry, in the end, we are imperfect beings.

Time and time again, we will step out of line or slip up, and therefore meet the consequences and must carry the burden of our faults. Though we have free will and knowledge of right and wrong, we still sometimes choose to do the easy way out, and end up hurting ourselves and others.

What does a person do when he or she is crushed by the gravity of his or her imperfections? Where does he or she look for guidance and direction? How does he or she become a better person?

Reflecting on our mistakes

We look at our own selves when faced with challenges of our human imperfections. Indeed, our free will allows us to choose between right and wrong. Therefore, when we do wrong, even by accident, we must still take responsibility for the repercussions of our actions. By carrying the weight of that responsibility, we are humbled. We are made aware that to err is to be human, and that we are, and will always be, prone to committing errors. We are taught a lesson, rather than being loaded with burden and pain. In accepting our human frailties, we open ourselves to deep reflection on our mistakes and allow us to draw out from ourselves, too, lessons and ways on how to change for the better.

To change, we must look at ourselves deeply to find where we went wrong. Rethink. Reflect. In a way, we look into our minds to spot our imperfections and make way for change. It is then that we can draw out the good from ourselves, that goes beyond our human flaws, faults and frailties.

Reframing from our old selves

Through learning from our mistakes, we allow ourselves to reform and reframe ourselves. We reset our system to remove our very human tendency to commit the same wrongdoings in the future. We free ourselves from the burden of our faults while realizing the errors of our ways, thus, making space for improvement.

When resetting, we let go of a former life that was full of strife and suffering, that is caused by our doings. As we recognize our sins and flaws, we are reborn and become ready to live a new chapter in our lives, better than the previous one.

The right thing to do

When we reflect and reset, we tell ourselves that we can always become better versions of what we are now. We remind ourselves of what wrongs we have done while moving on from them. We do not dwell on our past mistakes, but we learn from them. What we must do is to cleanse ourselves by becoming aware that we will slip up from time to time, but that we can avoid such mistakes by choosing to do the right thing from here on and to the future.