Category Archives: My Thoughts
This is a place for my random thoughts and musings. Enjoy..
Forgiveness.. No one said it would be easy.
Now that we’ve got the easy stuff out of the way, let’s start really digging into the idea of forgiveness, specifically, “I forgive, but I won’t forget”. This is where forgiveness gets dicey. I understand the desire and in some cases the need to remember for the purpose of learning, avoiding detrimental situations, and/or not placing yourself in harms way.
The problem, we often take these memories, these past issues that we’ve “Forgiven” and throw it back in someone’s face at the first sign of a problem, or the first time you get into a heated argument. This behavior is not a characteristic of true forgiveness, but rather the behavior of someone who either says they forgive and don’t mean it, or someone who wants to forgive but isn’t ready yet. The latter (want to forgive, not ready) is okay if we’re working on forgiving, and truthfully communicate to the person we have the issue with. Yes, you can tell someone you’re not ready to forgive them if asked. No, you cannot tell someone you forgive them if you haven’t. Forgiveness in this scenario means not even having the desire to remind them of how many times they’ve messed up or all the chances you’ve already given them. Let it go.
No one said it would be easy, but peace requires us to keep trying and to be real with ourselves. Will it take time; absolutely. Will you have to meet people more than halfway; most definitely. Will you go through rough patches; without a doubt. Will some people try to take advantage of you; yes… but forgiveness and the weight lifted on your soul is worth the risk that someone won’t appreciate the effort. At it’s best forgiveness can change the world. At worst, not carrying the grudge is one less thing for you to worry about.
Let the Invisible Beef Go…Forgiveness
The word for the week is “Forgiveness”.. To get us off on the right foot let’s get going with the easy stuff; “Invisible Beef”. Let’s start by forgiving everyone you have an invisible beef with. To clarify, an “Invisible Beef” is beef that you have with someone who is
- Unaware of the beef, and
- Unaware of why you have a beef/problem with them
Let it go and forgive them. Your Soul will thank you.
My Journey, Destination Unknown
Today my journey took me to an interesting place. To a place where I learned Patriotism is not at the center of my belief system, but it’s impact on my belief is undeniable. Today I realized my true desire is to decouple myself from my American centric view, and to realign my mind and soul to a place that puts God and family at its core. Today I searched my soul and learned I want to go to a place where I value life regardless of where a person was born, their affiliations, and/or their beliefs. To a place where I am respectful of all life, even that of my enemies because I understand we originate from the same source.
Today I recognize it is the journey that pitted us against one another, our human nature that makes us enemies, and love is the only thing that can bridge the gap between our souls. Today I know I need to go to a place where I can understand and accept our dilemma; I took the path I took, you took the path you took, and we both believed we were heading in the right direction. Today it dawned on me, that as much as I want to hate you. As much as I want to fight against and attack you. As much as I want to condemn and judge you; there is only one place I can go to takes me higher. Today I finally got it, my desire to elevate to a higher level requires me to learn to forgive without condition and willingly. Today, I learned the meaning of courage and strength. Thank you Malcolm; we almost forgot about you.
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