The gifts of forgiveness

You are wise to regard the gifts in forgiveness. Forgiveness is an essential part of being a human. Without forgiveness there is no giving, no receiving. The word—forgiveness—expresses the way in which this act of surrendering is meant to be received and given. Whenever you forgive yourself or another, you are making space within yourself or another for the gifts of whatever troubles you to be released, to be set free, to be vacated so that the compressed energy of holding onto whatever was compressed inside of you can be released. And with this release comes the ability to make room for the gifts to come in. Thinking about it spatially one can consider a room full of detritus and dusty boxes that have been sitting, collecting dust and occupying one’s mind every time one walks by this room filled with stuff. Even though it does not prevent you moving from room to room without your house, it is still taking up space and prevents one from seeing out the window in this room, or letting this room become a place for study, a hobby, or a friend to come stay. Every time one passes by the room filled with stuff, it irks you and yet until you take action and clean it out, the dust builds up and builds up and then as if by magic the dust covers everything and becomes part of the natural landscape of the house and something very challenging to take care of. And yet the moment you begin to clear out this room, you see the possibilities, the potential of this room to make way for your books, your paintbrushes, your guitar, that friend who wants to come visit, or an empty space for meditation or a movement practice. The challenge lies in the beginning of the cleaning. After that there is momentum to continue because you see and experience the benefits of tidying up and emptying out and brightening up this space of yours. And by the end of the day, you are already planning how you are going to have a party in this very room. 

This is a long winded analogy of how forgiveness works within our own hearts and minds. When we hold onto grievances —ones we have created for ourselves or others—we are preventing ourselves from having a party in our spare room. Grievances take up space in our hearts and our minds, like that dusty room. When the grievance is not released—and it is our responsibility to release it, no one else but ourselves can do this—it builds up energy within us that starts to feel like part of our natural interior landscape and may clutter our creativity and inspiration. It might be wise to take the time to notice if you have any dusty rooms right now within your heart. It might be wise to consider the gift you will give to yourself when you decide to clean them out. It might be exciting to think about what you will do with all of that extra space within your heart once you act upon this decision. There are many ways to forgive yourself or others. You can decide the best way to do so. There are only gifts waiting for you on the other side.