Appreciating the downturns...accelerating forgiveness.

Gratefulness is easy when we have something really wonderful to be thankful for. How about the difficulties? Patrick Miller ask us to consider "accelerating forgiveness" through gratefulness and not just the so called "good" things. He suggests that, as we change our perceptions, our misfortunes seem to add to our strength, resilience, response-ability and alertness.
He says," Lately it seems that" bad things" are merely those which I'm not yet prepared to handle effectively- and it also seems that they present themselves in order to help me increase my competence."
I think this statement is quite enlightening and I suspect it is not only our competence that is enhanced, but also our empathy, compassion, insight, resilience and tolerance to name just a few.

A Personal Note...

Linda Maxwell made a request in Wednesday class this morning...
Her email is: lmpmaxwell@gmail.com

Why do we roll to the right?

Some of you have asked that I locate this post for you.
Check this in the archives : Sunday, May 2nd, 2010.

Remembering...

Last week I read a poem* in class that pertained to questions that came up around forgiveness.
A few people asked about the idea of "forgive and forget". My response to that was that it was important to know that forgiveness is not about forgetting. Remembering what happened is often what makes us wiser. Forgiving is letting go of anger and resentment so we don't continue to carry toxic energy. Remembering what happened helps us to not fall down the same "hole again" and wonder why we are here once again. Portia Nelson says it so well in her poem, "Autobiography in Five Short Chapters".*
"Remembering" at its best invites us to realize that we all share "the wound of humanity" and that our wounds are not more special than those of others. "Our particular wounds have much to do with who we are as individuals and that history is important to understand." -Patrick Miller
However whenever you begin to reinforce an old grievance ask yourself ... "Do I want to go here again... will it make me feel better?" As P. Miller says, "What has fear and hurt done for me lately?"