“You don’t forgive. Rather, forgiveness
arrives when you’ve sorted things out and your heart is prepared and
sufficiently open.”
–Thomas Moore
I mentioned
forgiveness in my last post and thought that this tweet of Thomas Moore’s got
to the heart of things.
I personally
have never had much luck forcing the issue of forgiveness and, at times, have
been my own harshest critic for lacking the ability.
It seems that
forgiveness is something that evolves and makes its presence known when our
hearts are done incubating and we sense it is time to move on.
For me this has historically been a
frustratingly slow process. I want instant gratification! I desire peace now, but truly forgiving is something that takes as long as it takes.
Now that I
understand forgiveness as a process I am less hard on myself and have taken a
new tack, which is to allow the presence of all those difficult emotions I
would rather not face. I simply let myself feel them and do nothing.
Somehow this is
cathartic and takes me further in the direction of peaceful co-existence with
others, than getting lost in righteous indignation does.
I don’t have all
the answers. It is up to each of us to find our own way, but I think that
Moore’s point is an apt one.
I think
forgiveness happens to us when we soften enough inside to let love and
understanding do their work on us.
Then its
presence blossoms.
It is an act of grace.
