Don’t ignore nor bury past events in your life which seem mortifying to you.  Those memories can be used to motivate you and to enhance your spiritual path.

A person does not become a criminal by thinking about committing a crime.  He becomes a criminal only if he acts on it and actually commits the crime.
 
Likewise, when you have a sinful thought you have not sinned.  A sin is defined as an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law.  There is no repentance needed if you stumble in ethical or moral thought.  As long as you are strong enough to not act on your thought, the goodness in your soul will lift you up and you will be all the better for it.

You are a tree of vitality amid life’s desert.  Your canopy can bring shelter from what can sometimes seem like unbearable heat.  Your fruit can be taken for spiritual nourishment.
 

So what is around you to refresh your own soul?  Look to yourself.  There is strength in the leaves of spirituality that cover you.  As with trees, the more abundant your leaves the healthier you are.