A Powerful Force
Forgiving life… and self. Very important in the prudent path to ponder deeply and do the work. We often carry old events and situations for decades and let those feelings and thoughts creep into the current stream of the moment, dragging us back and holding us hostage. Sure, things could have been different.
As we contemplate the future, pray for guidance and forgiveness of self and others, position ourselves for launching into the best and brightest year yet… let us love one another more fully. That is the wisdom of the ages.
Forgiveness
From (@SHARONSALZBERG ), ON BEING COLUMNIST
I see forgiveness as a difficult and noble action — not a weak one, not a surrender or a capitulation. Of course, we can confuse it with giving in, with giving up our standards or principles, as tantamount to forcing amnesia. That kind of coercive denial could never be healing.
Forgiveness is not a single action, but a process. By forgiving those who harmed us, we do not pretend that what harm they caused did not happen, or that it did not hurt. We can see that chronic resentment stands in the way of love. The bitterness that arises from a long-held wrong, gone over and over, encases the heart, making it difficult for love to get through.
Fixing onto the memory of the harms we have suffered generates anger and sadness, and may cause us to withdraw from other love that comes our way. We may become so consumed by these feelings that we cannot enjoy the pleasures that are right in front of us. Forgiveness is the way we break the grip resentment has on our hearts.
This is not to say that forgiveness is easy. It cannot be rushed or engineered, but it may arrive over time. The spike of defensiveness we feel when someone advises us to “forgive and forget” shows how deep our pain has burrowed. Although the people who advise us to do this may have the best of intentions, forgiveness cannot be done on command. That does not work and it is not at all fair to us. In hearing we should stop feeling our very genuine bitter feelings, we may find ourselves defending our pain and our right to continue to feel it.
Thinking differently now makes us change our feelings of anger et al, and release them with forgiveness. The love revealed allows us to continue to ascend at the speed of surrender. Alas, we do not experience it unless we do it. Forgiveness is powerful.
Enjoy the journey, lead with vision and, of course, Be The Dream.