Forgiveness

Towards the end of 2013 the word that appeared before me to frame my 2014 was forgiveness. And it was a word for a while now I have resisted. In the last few years the words that have come to me Dance ... Freedom... Spaciousness... have been easier to embrace. And yet when forgiveness came it felt qualitatively different.

I have been listening to a short promotional video for a book called Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth A Collection of Essays edited by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee.



In this piece I heard the voice of Winona La Duke put into words the transformational and healing powers of forgiveness and why it is so necessary for me to go through this experience.

It is no longer okay to look away from the pain and suffering taking place around me, within me, by me, to me. Focusing attention on the positive exclusively is to avoid acknowledging the grief that is present and growing. This is not an indulgent, narcisistic solely inward looking retrospection. It is connected and inseperably joined to the whole.

There is a wail and cry to be heard if I listen deeply enough. And it has something to say, something to share and teach me. I would if I were more bold expand this beyond me to others, however, that is your journey and rightly your decision to make.

As Winona says, "The process of apology and redemption or forgiveness, is a mutual healing process."