Forgiveness 06/18/2010
 
 “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute  of the strong.”  ~Mahatma Gandhi    

 “We achieve inner health only through forgiveness - forgiveness not only of others but also of ourselves”   ~ Joshua Loth Liebman 

 
We've all heard the famous quote, "To err is human, to forgive Divine".  But what does it really mean?  Ever thought about it?


It's my belief that as souls, we choose our lives before we are born, and that those of us who chose to be born into a life of difficulty and hardship have chosen to do so in order to either work off some karmic debt or to learn major soul lessons through the experiences and relationships we have.  In other words, we are all students and we get to pick and choose our classrooms, our teachers, our desks and even our school supplies long before our first day begins.  Some have chosen harder classes than others, but if we pay attention to the lessons, we'll do just fine.
 
A while ago, a friend and I were talking about forgiveness.  She regrets not being as emotionally available as she'd have liked for several family members towards the end of their lives, and was having a difficult time forgiving herself.  I think that this is a position that many of us find ourselves in.  We look back and beat ourselves up over things we've said or done in the past and end up with feelings of guilt.  The trouble with that is, we can't go back and change it!  If we spend our time focusing on things that we did yesterday, we will never truly experience today, and the cycle of guilt continues.  Often carrying around these feelings of guilt can lead to difficulties in our current relationships.  We need to embrace today as a new opportunity to build healthy, happy memories for the future. 

Letting the past go can be a difficult thing to do.  If we've made mistakes (and who hasn't?) we have to forgive ourselves and allow ourselves the permission to have been wrong, and to have been human.  Every challenge that we have faced in the past was a learning experience; so ask yourself what you learned from it and what positive experience you can create from it.  Maybe you learned to be more of a good listener and source of support to someone who is ailing, or maybe now you know how you'd handle that same situation if it ever came up again. 

To err IS human, it's where we learn, it's where we grow.  If we had no adversity, we'd never know our own strength.  To forgive ourselves for the errors we make, however, truly is Divine.  
 


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