Thanks for listening to my call of the day podcast. You can hear my live radio program Monday through Friday from 2 to 5 p.m. Eastern time on Sirius XM Triumph 111.

Robert, welcome to the program.

Hello, Dr. Laura. How are you?

Good. What can I do for you today?

Okay, I have a question. I'm in my mid 50s and I live in a different state. I live in Texas. I grew up in Los Angeles and I'm out of work now and I'm getting ready to make some changes and I'm getting ready for surgery and a lot of things have been haunting me about when I was young when I lived in a certain house when I was a child.

It was in Venice, California. I think of Jim Morrison, you know, the beach.

Okay, my mother did the best she could. She was a single parent. She wasn't always home. She had to work.

Dinosaur was my electronic babysitter. Things weren't always nice and then they would be nice and then things would happen and then things would be nice again.

And I thought, you know, I have a little granny that I have never met. She's in the Los Angeles area.

And I thought about going out there and I thought about driving by the old house going to the old McDonald's, going to the old church, revisiting and recreating new memories so that when I do think back or something reminds me of something, it doesn't always have to be back.

I should have just let it go completely because I can't.

Something's telling me to go there.

I'm sorry. What makes you think you can't? Letting go doesn't mean forgetting.

Letting go means you're not going to spend your time thinking about it, marinating in it, regretting it, being hurt and angry over it. That's a lot of effort.

But I don't understand why you say you can't let it go. No, answer what I'm asking. Don't go off with your story in some other direction.

Because when I try to move ahead, it's like, I'll go ahead.

You have moved ahead by 30, 40 years. You have moved ahead. What are you talking about?

That's true. I'm here today.

Okay, let me explain something to you. Let me explain something to you.

You have some crappy memories from your past. Don't try to get rid of them.

Leave them alone and learn something from them and get on with your life, which you have.

But you can't make them go away and you're not going to replace them with, oh, I'm going to have a cheeseburger this time and I'll feel better about seeing the McDonald's. Come on.

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