Forgiveness: Read, live, repeat.

Good Morning,

As I awakened today, I came to the quiet realization that forgiveness is a continuous process. I get really cocky sometimes thinking, “I am so freaking evolved and totally over it.” And while this is true to a degree, it isn’t the end. By definition evolution is a dynamic process that doesn’t ever really end, isn’t it?

Last year, I had 3 of the major relationships in my life dissolve. Included in the 3 were relationships of both a romantic and a non-romantic nature. And though those persons are no longer full time participants in my life, they haven’t disappeared from the universe (or even from the lives of some of the other people that are still in my life) and I’m still forced to acknowledge their existence from time to time. Whether they are brought up in conversation, appear somewhere on the internet or they reach out to me directly themselves, their presence keeps returning to my life. And the fact that it still bugs me/gives me butterflies/makes me revisit situations, lets me know that I am not finished the work of forgiving.

And I am forced to confront the notion that I will forever be expected to forgive both myself and others, and to release both myself and others from those hurtful situations that occur. Forgiveness is not an intention that I can set and walk away from. I have to live it and breathe it on a daily basis. Even when I have long forgotten the hurt, I will still need to be in a place of forgiveness.

Every time I read something concerning the forgiving of self and/or others, it resonates RESOUNDINGLY in my head. And so it was with yesterday’s The Daily Love email. I share this because my spirit wouldn’t allow me to read it and walk away from it this morning. And because I know that I’m not the only one who has been hurt. I hope you can draw something from it as well.

The gift of forgiveness is two-fold:

1. You free yourself and your creative energy to create the life of your dreams.

2. You turn what you thought was a sad ending into the midpoint of a story with a happy ending.

TODAY'S AFFIRMATIONS

When I let go and forgive the best life flows to me.

I forgive myself and set myself free.

I know they did the best they could at the time, I set them free.

I only control my choices. I chose to be in a relationship with them. My gift was the lessons that I learned. They are forgiven from now and forever.

I let them off the hook for how I feel.

-Mastin Kipp, TDL