Friday, July 19, 2013

on jumping personal hurdles

With everything that has happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself or treat what has happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.      ~Dr. Wayne Dyer
One of the big challenges I have in my life right now is that of forgiveness. It’s a theme that keeps rearing its head and presenting itself to me in different forms. Ok, ok already, I get the message. The problem is I’ve never been able to just let things roll off my back.  I’ve asked someone wiser than me how to do this – how do I forgive, how do I “just decide” to make it so. I mean after all, in no way do I want to condone the bad or hurtful behavior. My head tells me that if I don’t let go then I’m letting the events continue to hurt me over and over again. I know that forgiving doesn’t have anything to do with the other person and it’s certainly not about forgetting.  What my heart tells me is that I need to do this for myself.  I want to listen to my heart.

3 comments:

Debbie said...

Listen to your heart, but sometimes you just have to walk away!!

Gorgeous calli lillie's, I have never seen them in yellow!!

Tracy Altieri said...

Friends and I recently had a conversation about this very thing. I said that I just don't know what forgiveness feels like. I guess that I have always envisioned it as moving forward with the individual or circumstances as though it had never happened - and I know that I'm just not humanly capable of that. After much discussion, I came to the conclusion that forgiveness for me is that I choose (decide) to not let the offense control who I am, what I do, how I feel about myself. I think that there is also a lesson to be learned when someone has "done me wrong", and that it is not a wasted experience if I can try to figure out what that is.

Tierney Barden said...

Hi - I'm one of Tracy's friends who was a part of the discussion, and it was so good that I still reflect on it. I recently heard it said that forgiving is about letting go of wishing it happened differently.
Bev, your blog is beautiful. I feel like a kindred spirit!