"Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that crushed it." ~ Mark Twain
A very good morning everyone. :) Every new morning, whether dull or bright is a blessing; and today, I received two additional blessings via email. The first one was a lovely soul's status update, it said and asked at the same time, "I saw a rainbow! When was the last time you saw one?" I replied saying, "I can see one as I type this; life's gorgeous rainbow is visible anywhere we choose to see it." Kartika's (the beautiful soul who typed the update) beautiful revelation helped me see my rainbow this morning. In the end, no matter what we go through (the good and the not so good), we need believe that the rainbow is here, right here, right now.
Miracle number two: I received a beautiful email from one of my best friends on forgiveness. It talked about forgiveness in her true form, about being able to love another human being as a person, as a soul, irrespective of his/her past. Someone's past should not stop us from accepting that person for who they've become in the present. Given a chance, they can become some of our best friends. The lesson here is forgive, just forgive because this is how God wills us to live our lives.
Think about it, God forgives us our indiscretions daily; can you imagine how miserable we'd be if the Almighty kept an account of our shortcomings and reminded us of them? In the same way, we must forgive anyone and everyone who may have harmed us in any way. You know what, life has some of her greatest lessons and most precious messages in tough situations. In fact, if someone is intentionally trying to harm you or bring you down, you will find a lesson and a message even in that situation. It's the uncomfortable situations that help us enhance our spiritual lives and define our character.
Of course, we're human and when we experience a situation such as the above, our obvious action is a reaction; however, we must try and practice restraint. Experience the situation, look at it for what it really is, feel the emotions, embrace them and pray that we're able to forgive, truly forgive people. Forgiveness may not come at that very moment, but it will in the future. Forgiveness and love go hand-in-hand and if we truly love life, we will be able to forgive, of that I'm certain.
Kia Scherr, is a beautiful living example. In an earlier post I told you about how 26/11 claimed the lives of her husband and daughter. Today, Kia co-founded One Life Alliance, a spiritual organisation whose very foundations lie in
love and forgiveness. Kia is a picture of peace, calm and forgiveness and she has planned a spiritual event on the 26th of this month at The Trident, Mumbai to honour everyone who lost their lives. (I will give you details about this in a separate post). She embodies love and forgiveness.
Just last evening, I was having a conversation with another friend. We were discussing a few characters who tried to sabotage our careers when we were only starting out. Of course, it affected us then terribly, we were lost in the woods for some time, but in the end we were led to a path chosen by God. We didn't find our way out, we're too mortal for that; we just placed our faith, trust and belief in the Almighty, allowed him to hold our hands and we followed. As we reminisced, we realised that in spite of the pain and grief we went through then, we learned, and that is our takeaway. Are we angry with the people who did what they did? No, not one bit; we were sad then, but now that sadness is replaced with forgiveness. In fact, we thank them, for if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have learned what we did. As we talked about a time gone by, the only things we took were the lessons and a few good times through the tough ones.
When God asks us to forgive and forget, I believe he hopes that we're genuinely able to forgive with love (and that means truly wishing everyone well) and forget the negative emotions. However, he wants us to keep the positive, keep the goodwill, spread love, just like he continues to do. We too mortal, too human to resort to judging; no, we must embrace everyone for all they are and all they're not. In the end, we see in another person what we see in ourselves.
Then, there are some experiences that are crippling and each of us may see many deaths through the trauma we feel. But rejoice, for each dead part is replaced by a new us. We must remember, the pain of loss escapes no one, but, the birth of a new us does. So, it's up to us really, will we prevent our spiritual progression only because we hold on to anger? We experience pain, loss, hurt and then in time allow ourselves to heal and move on. The more we hold on to this, the more we hold on to grudges against people and the further we are from our spiritual destination.
Forgiveness is only as easy or as difficult as we want it to be. When someone hurts, cheats or slanders you in any way, remember they are not defining you, they are just defining themselves. If you choose to react and get back at them, then you allow them to define you. Forgive, just forgive and understand the lesson in a tough situation.
It has been said that the continuation of species is due to man being forgiving. He, indeed, is a wise and excellent person who has conquered his wrath and shows forgiveness even when insulted, oppressed, and angered by a strong person. Forgiveness is virtue and a sacrifice.
I see in you what I see in me. I see God, love, hope, transformation in you because I see that in myself. God the very embodiment of forgiveness; forgiveness the very embodiment of love; love the very embodiment of life.
Have a fabulously blessed day everyone with a lot of beautiful rainbows everywhere you look. :)
