Forgiveness

  

   We hang on to our resentments and our grievances toward others like they are the last meal to be had on earth. We tighten our fists around bad blood because we need to be right and we need others to be wrong. Over time the heart begins to decay. It becomes harder and harder to feel joy, it becomes more difficult to hear the voice of peace within and love begins to escape us. It can’t be felt. We run out of love for ourselves and for anyone else as barriers are built out of the putty and stone of pride. What is the use in this practice? Why is being right so valuable? It is much more precious to be at peace than to be the most right person on the planet; that person dies alone. I want to feel my inner warmth and to feel the merriment that radiates from my heart. Hanging on to grievances congests the pathway to this inner delight.

   There is enormous worth in knowing yourself, knowing what is best for you and understanding your truth. And there is nothing wrong with expressing this to another person. But when you defend your boundary with violence, you have reason to be sorry. Hanging on to a position of rightness in defense of some broken element of your pride stiffens your heart. Let go and apologize for the hurt you might have caused someone. Tell the truth; that you were afraid, that you are sorry for speaking from a place of fear instead of from love.

   Forgive yourself for feeling and acting this way. Forgiveness brings us into the now. When we are unable to forgive we are wedged in the past. It’s as if we are dragging an anchor in deep sand with our sails filled; we are working toward today’s mission, but are standing still. Whether our anchor has settled into the sea floor of personal mistakes or mistakes others have committed against us, if we lay in this unforgiving bed, we deny ourselves life’s beauty by veiling our ability to see it. The flowering of the heart cannot happen if it is constricted by resentments. Let the photons of forgiveness lift the petals of the heart and begin to bask in the glow of the present moment.