Journey to Forgiveness

“It’s not an easy journey, to get to a place where you forgive people. But it is such a powerful place, because it frees you.”
― Tyler Perry

I know many people who had very painful childhoods. Either mistreated or neglected by their parents or others, they carried pain around with them for years. I don’t mean physical pain of course but those emotional scars that make intimate  connections with others so difficult. They know the cause of their problems but in many cases they are unable or unwilling to do the work necessary to get past this, Most often because they have  not yet learned to forgive.

Many of them will say they have forgiven their parents or others whom they identify as their victimizers. Many will say forgiven but not forgotten. They then will recount at length painful event after painful event in which they were the victim perpetuating both their role and reinforcing the memory adding yet one more crime to be forgiven, one more link in the chain that connects them to their past. Sometimes there is not even an external person whom we hold responsible but ourselves. This was my situation for years.

Forgiving is difficult. It means using our compassion to put ourselves into the heads of someone we’ve feared, hated or both for years and understanding why the do what they do. It means taking responsibility for our present and realizing that that was then, this is now and we are not going to let our past or the people in it keep us from having the kind of present and future that we deserve. Those are the true first steps to our liberation.
Blessings, G

Click on image to see full-sized

Masque by G A Rosenberg

Rippling Spirals by G A Rosenberg