Cutting Free

February 2, 2021

Q: How can I best forgive and does that look different from person to person?

A: First, give yourself the opportunity to look at it / the issue / the affront / the trespass squarely in the eye. No downward, uneasy side-glance but one that looks the offense squarely in the eye to see it for what is and to signal to the other that you see and acknowledge it and that you see them at the same time. You are not embarrassed and you are letting them see that you respect their Soul enough to “see” them—flaws and all. Your anger doesn’t have to so distress you and make you blind that you can’t even look at a person. Love is not accepting something as having been okay but meeting someone on the level that we as humans all have “flaws” and make mistakes. No one is immune to or above hurting another person, even someone they care for deeply. Forgiveness is taking the judgement away from yourself and putting it in the hands of the Divine and wishing each Soul an upward journey, a higher path. To box someone in—to say this is what they are because this is what they’ve done and this is how it’ll end—takes grace out of the equation and limits potential, at least to your perspective. You deny yourself the blessing of having been grace and inspiration in their Soul’s path. Thus the harm you suffer is just that—pain—when it can be so much more than that. It can be a refreshing plunge into an ocean where you feel weightless and buoyed up. Anger and resentment are weights tied to your arms and legs—chains bound around your chest like in the Scrooge movie. Break free! Forgiveness is not allowing pain and fear to forge links in chains that only weigh you down in the Dungeon of Despair (Pilgrim’s Progress) . Cut free and drift up so that the sun shines on your face once again.