Waves of Forgiveness

I think that most of us go through the process of forgiveness in waves. We move through time and space and arrive at a feeling of peace with a situation, or a person and think "I'm there!" Awesome. Really, at least in the moment.

When subsequent moments of hurt related to the situation crop up, I feel like I have been bulldozed by life, by emotion. "What? I already dealt with this," has been an enlightened response from my mind. Not so.

I think we deal with situations where we are, when we are there. As we learn and love and forgive through our lives, residual resentments pop up like a jack-in-the-box. Parts of ourselves respond to the emotional trigger that we were not available, aware, or developed enough at the time to recognize the residue left in the mental tub. It was clean enough at the time to meet our needs and to move on. Again, not so now.

Moving through forgiveness is a journey. A journey that releases ourselves and others involved from the snare of stagnated emotions. It affords us (and them) the freedom to move forward in our lives with new peace, new resolve, and a deeper understanding of ourselves and compassion for others.

Recognizing and welcoming the feelings that arise can take practice. It can be difficult to want to review past hurts, but it isn't necessarily the whole situation that needs to be tossed over and over again in our minds. Just that snippet that poked it's head out to remind you, "Oh, yeah... I'm still here."

I encourage you to clear out the emotional cobwebs. Clinging to hurt and resentment because it is safe, or familiar holds you back from experiencing joy, peace, and fully loving yourself as well as others. It is a process. It is meant to be. Peace on your journey.