Sunday, July 19, 2009

A Hard Gift


What a hard gift it is to be hurt by a friend.

Sometimes, this is the only way to understand forgiveness -- the forgiveness we give even when we haven't been asked for it.

Sometimes when the wounds go deep enough, we also have to discover how to forgive ourselves for letting go of a hurtful friend.

When we can forgive our own mournful soul its many hurts, we can forgive any hurtfulness. When we can forgive any hurt with an open and honest heart, we become free of fear.

When we become free of fear, compassion rushes in to fill the void.

1 comment:

The Rambling Taoist said...

I've always found that forgiving others isn't hard at all. In fact, for me, it's the default action. But forgiving myself, THAT was the hard part.

However, when I chose to move beyond the Christian tradition, forgiveness all the way around became that much easier.